Axe vs. Pirates: Welcome to Mombasa

"It’s a centuries-old island port blessed with several deep-water channels. Mombasa, in southern Kenya, is the country’s second largest city with a population of 700,000 — and the economic engine not only for Kenya, but for many of the less-developed countries in the region.

And it’s the furthest outpost in the war against piracy. Somalia, and that country’s thousands of high-tech pirates, lie just a few hundred miles north of Mombasa. The Kenyan port is the last stop for many ships that run the Somali gauntlet from south to north, aiming for the Red Sea and Europe. Ships coming north to south, having successfully evaded pirates, lay over in Mombasa to resupply or drop off cargo. And even ships that don’t make it at first — those that are seized by pirates wielding AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades — eventually come to Mombasa after their owners pay million-dollar ransoms."
War is Boring