With international navies patrolling waters off Somalia to fight pirates, the Somali government sees the rebuilding of the war-torn country is the answer to uproot the rampant piracy.
"It is a tragedy that things should have come to this stage," Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar told Reuters on Sunday, April 12.
"But also this demonstrates clearly and categorically that the issue is based on land and has to be resolved on land."
Many countries have sent navy ships on anti-piracy missions off Somali coasts, but failed to stop pirates attacking vessels at the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden, which connects Europe to Asia and the Middle East via the Suez canal.
As the patrols mainly focused on the Gulf of Aden, pirates moved further in the Indian Ocean to prey on ships.
Pirates hijacked an Italian vessel and its 16-strong crew on Saturday and maneuvered it toward the Somali coastline.
The hijacking came after pirates hijacked a cargo ship carrying 5,000 tonnes of UN aid destined for African refugees on Wednesday and took a US captain hostage.
"It's clear the varieties of international forces that have come to the waters of Somalia are not able to resolve the issue," Omaar said.
"The reason is that we are talking about one million square kilometers (386,100 sq miles) of sea, the size of Spain.
"It is very frustrating, because why this government came into existence is because the people of Somalia decided they had had enough of war."
Rebuilding
The Somali minister condemned ransom payments from ship owners for fueling piracy off Somalia.
"This is paying criminal activity," said Omaar, a British-educated businessman and consultant from an influential Somali diaspora family.
"Why should someone who is acting against national and international be rewarded?"
Omaar said poverty did not justify people going into piracy.
"There are 3 million Somalis in various parts of the country who are displaced. They have not resorted to criminality to survive," he said.
"Those in this affair are in it for money and they have been in it for years. They cannot claim poverty."
The Somali government said that rebuilding the war-torn Horn of Africa country is the key to uproot piracy.
"Our first priority is to re-establish the rule of law," he said.
"For that, we have requested from the foreign community assistance to build our security forces."
The Somali government is building up an army and police force of around 20,000 men but so far has little to no sea capability.
"We can certainly resolve (piracy) in partnership with the international community," said Omaar.
"The international community is as much in need of rule of law in Somalia as the people of Somalia."