Pirates Hijack News

A merchant ship has reportedly been hijacked off the northeast coast of Somalia, marking the first successful hijacking by Somali pirates since 2017.The Panama-flagged ship was en route from the United Arab Emirates to Mogadishu port when it appeared to develop mechanical problems, Reuters reports.The 112-meter chemical tanker Aegean II was said to be attacked by six armed pirates on Wednesday night, according to maritime security intelligence group Dryad Global, who described the incident as an "isolated and opportunistic piratical activity which seized on a vessel in a vulnerable situation".According to Dryad Global, the Aegean II slowed from its 6-knot cruising speed to 1 knot, giving pirates a "window of opportunity" to attack.

Somali pirates hijacked an Iranian fishing vessel on Tuesday to use as a base to attack bigger, more valuable ships, the mayor of a Somali town said, part of an upsurge in attacks following years of relative calm. Crews have let security procedures slip in recent years and travel far closer to pirate-infested shores than authorities recommend, shipping sources say. The pirate gangs launch small, fast skiffs from bases on shore to try hijack vessels. "A group of Somali pirates captured an Iranian fishing vessel and are using it as a mother ship in order to hijack (other) ships," Ali Shire, the mayor of Haabo in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, told Reuters. "The Iranian fishing vessel does not have a licence (to fish) in Puntland," he added.

Pirates have hijacked an Indian commercial ship off the coast of Somalia, the second attack in weeks after years of inactivity, industry and security sources said on Monday. United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which coordinates the management of merchant ships and yachts in the Gulf of Aden area, said it had received information that a dhow en route to Bosasso from Dubai had been hijacked "in the vicinity of Socotra (Island)". A spokesman said UKMTO could not confirm the location of the vessel, which he identified as Al Kausar, or what exactly had taken place, and that investigations were continuing. "We understand Somali pirates hijacked a commercial Indian ship (and it is heading) towards Somalia shores…

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with eight Sri Lankan crew on board, Somali authorities said on Tuesday, the first time a commercial ship has been seized in the region since 2012. Security forces have been sent to free the Aris 13, a regional police official said late on Tuesday. "We are determined to rescue the ship and its crew. Our forces have set off to Alula. It is our duty to rescue ships hijacked by pirates and we shall rescue it," Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, director general of Puntland’s marine police forces, told Reuters by phone. Puntland is a semi-autonomous northern region of Somalia. Alula is a port town there where pirates have taken the tanker. Experts said the ship was an easy target and ship owners were becoming lax after a long period of calm.

Somali pirates have hijacked an Iranian fishing vessel with 15 crew members, a Somali official and a maritime expert said on Monday amid warnings that piracy might be making a comeback in the Indian Ocean. Although there are still occasional cases of sea attacks, piracy near Somalia's coast had largely subsided in the past three years, mainly due to shipping firms hiring private security details and the presence of international warships. The Iranian ship was taken on Sunday evening in waters off northern Somali city of Eyl, said Abdirizak Mohamed Dirir, director of the anti-piracy and seaport ministry in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in Somalia. "Pirates hijacked an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel with its 15 crew from near Eyl," Dirir told Reuters.

The tanker Singa Berlian has been hijacked, off Pulau Repong, Indonesia, by armed pirates, reported anti-piracy watchdog International Maritime Bureau (IMB). According to the report, the incident took place on March 9 at about 9 pm local time some 37 nautical miles south of Pulau Repong. Singa Berlian was boarded by seven masked men armed with guns and long knives. The armed men held the crew hostage and took control of the ship. The 1993-built, 1,940 dwt tanker’s communication and navigational equipment were later damaged by the pirates and the vessel’s marine fuel oil cargo was transferred to another ship. During the attack, one seafarer was slightly injured. The pirates then left the vessel.

As the threat posed by maritime piracy continues in several parts of the world, there is a growing debate among different governments, private sector analysts, non-governmental organization advocates and others about how bad the situation truly is; where and to whom it is the most challenging, what more needs to be done, and how much the private security industry actually benefits from this type of reporting. Like the famous phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” different people find the same threats to be of varying degrees of worry. Yet the bottom line is that piracy’s frequency and growing transnational criminal reach, the people it hurts…

A maritime security alert has been issued after pirates hijacked a Greek-owned and Isle of Man flagged oil tanker. A Togolese patrol boat exchanged gunfire with the hostage-takers before they escaped with the vessel, which had 24 crew members on board. It is unclear if any casualties were incurred during the stand-off. Most hijackings in the region involve a detention period of between 4-8 days. Pirates are more likely to steal cargo and crew belongings before abandoning a vessel rather than negotiating the payment of a ransom for its release. Vessel operators are advised to continue exercising caution in the area, particularly onboard vessels at anchor.

The Liberien flagged, Greek owned, Eleni P was reported to have been hijacked 250 nautical miles off the coast of Oman on the morning of 12 May. The bulk carrier of 72,119 deadweight and crew of 26 (23 Filipinos, 2 Romanian and 1 Indian) was on route to Kandla in India when taken by pirates. The crew are reported to be safe and EU NAVFOR is monitoring.

The Turkish flagged Bulk Carrier Yasin C was hijacked on April 7 approximately 250 Nautical Miles east of Mombasa. The Yasin C, with deadweight of 36 318 tonnes, left the IRTC almost one week ago and was heading to Mombasa. The Turkish owned and operated Yasin C has a crew of 25 and all are believed to be Turkish. It is understood that first reports of the attack on the ship came from the NATO Turkish warship Gelibolu that received distress calls from the Yasin C. EU NAVFOR, who works closely with NATO and CMF, continues to monitor the situation.

Somali pirates have recently hijacked an Indian ship and used it to launch an unsuccessful attack on a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, according to VOA News. The large crude carrier Elephant is similar to the Saudi-owned Sirius Star that Somali pirates hijacked in November 2008 and held for two months. The hijacking of the Indian ship brings the number of vessels being held by Somali pirates to at least 15. The United States, China, NATO and other world powers are conducting naval patrols off Somalia in an effort to protect commercial shipping.

According to an Associated Press report, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi supertanker loaded with crude hundreds of miles off the coast of East Africa — defeating the security web of warships trying to protect vital shipping lanes. The takeover demonstrates the bandits' heightened ambitions and capabilities: Never before have they seized such a giant ship so far out to sea. Maritime experts warned the broad daylight attack, reported by the U.S. Navy on Monday, was an alarming sign of the difficulty of patrolling a vast stretch of ocean key to oil and other cargo traffic. The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized at about 10 a.m. on Nov. 15, more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the Navy said.

According to the Washington Post, Pirates captured a South Korean-flagged fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday and efforts by a U.S. Navy ship and a Dutch vessel to intervene were abandoned when members of the South Korean crew were threatened with guns and the ship slipped into Somali territorial waters, the Navy said. It was the latest in a series of incidents off the coast of Somalia. On March 18, two U.S. Navy ships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates, killing one and wounding five. No U.S. sailors were injured. Somalis involved in that incident later claimed they were patrolling Somali waters to stop illegal fishing when the U.S. ships fired on them.