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criminalwisdom:

The end of piracy? Somali heyday seems over as militaries defend against attacks

Faduma Ali, a prostitute in the inland town of Galkayo that became a pirate haven, longs for the days when her pirate customers had money. As she smoked a hookah in a hot, airless room last week, she sneered as she answered a phone call from a former customer seeking her services on credit.

“Those days are over. Can you pay me $1,000?” she asked, the price she once commanded for a night’s work. “If not, goodbye and leave me alone.” She hung up and groaned out loud: “Money.”

The caller, Abdirizaq Saleh, once had bodyguards and maids and the attention of beautiful women. When ransoms came in, a party was thrown, with blaring music, bottles of wine, the stimulant called khat and women for every man. Now Saleh is hiding from creditors in a dirty room filled with the dust-covered TVs and high-end clothes he acquired when flush.