Merca, SOMALIA: A Somali gunman carries a Russian-made long range machinegun in the port-town of Merca, 26 October 2005, 100 kilometers (65 miles) south of Mogadishu, as he guards a vessel, the MV Herol, from pirates while it offloads food aid. Carrying some 5,000 tons of sorghum from Care International aid agency to be donated to food insecure southern part of Somalia, the ship’s security comprises heavily armed Somali gunmen equipped with small and heavy machineguns as well as rocket propelled grenade launchers, measures being commonly resorted to by commercial shippers when sailing the pirate infested Somali waters. Somalia has had no functioning central administration for the past 14 years and last week the head of the country’s fledgling and largely powerless transitional government appealed for help in combatting piracy. AFP PHOTO ALI MUSA (Photo credit should read ALI MUSA/AFP/Getty Images)