When Mr Kagan tried to find some evidence for his ‘coming anarchy’ in West Africa he may have been at the wrong corner of the continent. Have a look at these news from the Somali coast. The International Maritime Organisation has last week warned all ships to stay off this coast at a distance of at least 200 n.miles.

Count the players involved in this little fight. It looks pretty much like anarchy:

US ship helps North Korea vessel crew overpower Somali pirates

MOGADISHU, Oct 30, 2007 (AFP) - A US naval destroyer helped crew members of a North Korean cargo vessel on Tuesday to violently regain control of their freighter captured off Mogadishu port, the vessel's contractor said.

The 22-strong crew of the MV Dia Honga Dan overpowered armed pirates who had seized it overnight Monday, with help from a US warship, said Ali Gabow Jillo, the Mogadishu trader who had contracted the vessel.

"The US ship ordered the (Somali) security forces we had sent to follow the ship to stay away," he added, citing information from the shipping firm that runs the freighter in Singapore. He gave no further details about the US ship.

The pirates who had seized the North Korean boat were members of a Somali clan who were meant to be guarding it, Mogadishu port security officials said.

"The crew members have taken control of the ship after defeating the eight men who hijacked it last night," said Dahir Hassan, an elder in the Somali port of Haradere, earlier.

"There are casualties, but we are not sure of the exact number of dead or injured," he added. "Now the ship is out there and some government forces and businessmen from Mogadishu have been dispatched to the area," he added.

Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme, confirmed the release of the freighter, which was contracted by Mogadishu traders to deliver general cargo.

"We have information that ship has been rescued. The crew overpowered the pirates," Mwangura, who monitors maritime transport, told AFP from the port town of Mombasa.

"We are waiting for the ship to return to port, if nothing happens as they sail back, so that we can get more information," he added, explaining that initial reports indicated the "crew members were from southern Asia nations."

African Union peacekeepers charged with protecting the port said the vessel was outside their operation area.

"It was far away from the seaport, it was at the anchorage. The hijacking was masterminded by the same people who were supposed to bring it into the docking," captain Paddy Ankunda told AFP.

Ankunda said the militiamen had asked for 15,000 dollars to free the freighter that arrived in Mogadishu 10 days before and had already unloaded its cargo.

The incident was the second piracy attack off Somalia's 3,700 kilometre (2,300 miles) coastline in recent days.

On Sunday, a Japanese chemical tanker with 23 Korean, Filipino and Myanmar crew on board was hijacked off the coast of northern Somalia. The fate of that ship and its crew remains unknown.

Rampant piracy off Somalia's vast coastline stopped in the second half of 2006 during six months of strict rule by an Islamist movement, ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government troops at the end of the year.

The French navy is due mid-November to deploy a vessel to protect UN World Food Programme-charted ships, which have been targeted while ferrying supplies to Somalia in recent months. (AFP)