Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:47AM
Men believed to be pirates in a boat off the Somali coast (file photo)
Somali pirates have hijacked an Emirati petrol tanker with 16 crew members on board in the Indian Ocean as it was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to the self-declared republic of Somaliland.
"Late on July 16 morning, it was reported by the owners that the MV Jubba 20, a laden tanker, had been pirated in the northern Indian Ocean, on her regular route from the United Arab Emirates to the port of Berbera," the European Union Naval Force Somalia said in a statement.
The statement added that the oil tanker is owned and flagged by the UAE with a deadweight of 4,831 tons.
Nine Somali pirates are reportedly on board the ship, and are sailing it to the northern coast of Somalia.
The vessel has a crew of four Somalis, five Indians and nationals of Bangladesh, Sudan, Myanmar and Kenya.
Rampant piracy off the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia has made the waters among the most dangerous in terms of pirate activities.
The Gulf of Aden, which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, is the quickest route for more than 20,000 vessels traveling annually between Asia, Europe and the Americas.
However, attacks by heavily armed Somali pirates on speedboats have prompted some of the world's largest shipping firms to switch routes from the Suez Canal and reroute cargo vessels around southern Africa, leading to climbing shipping costs.
Somalia has been in strife since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, it has been embroiled in a bitter civil war for years.
The lawless state has been without a functioning government ever since and the authority of the so-called Transitional Federal Government is limited mostly to the area around the capital city, Mogadishu.
MP/MMA/HRF
No comments:
Post a Comment