sponse, the Transitional Federal Government set up a national committee consisting of several federal-level ministers tasked with assessing and addressing the needs of the drought-impacted segments of the population. According to the Lutheran World Federation, military activities in the country's southern conflict zones had by early December 2011 greatly reduced the movement of migrants. In February 2012, the UN announced that the food crisis in southern Somalia was over due to a scaling up of relief efforts and a bumper harvest, but warned that general conditions were still fragile. Aid agencies have now shifted their emphasis to recovery efforts, including digging irrigation canals and distributing plant seeds. Long-term strategies by the national government in conjunction with development agencies are believed to offer the most sustainable results.
A consequence of the collapse of governmental authority that accompanied the civil war has been the emergence of a significant problem with piracy in the waters off of the coast of Somalia. Piracy arose as a response by local fishermen from littoral towns such as Eyl, Kismayo and Harardhere to illegal fishing by foreign trawlers. An upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean has also been attributed to the effects of the 26 December 2004 tsunami that devastated local fishing fleets and washed ashore containers filled with toxic waste that had been dumped by European fishing vessels. In August 2008, a multinational coalition took on the task of combating the piracy by establishing a Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) within the Gulf of Aden. Additionally, the regional Puntland government in northeastern Somalia committed itself to eradicating piracy and has so far made progress in its campaign, having apprehended numerous pirates in 2010, including a prominent leader. The autonomous region's security forces also reportedly managed to force out the pirate gangs from their traditional safe
