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http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/09-somali-pirates-hijack-pakistani-ship-szh--03
MOGADISHU: Somali pirates hijacked another ship, a Pakistani-owned vessel carrying goods for Somali traders, over the weekend, a pirate commander and a local businessman told AFP Sunday.
The MV Al-Misan was captured around 100 kilometres off the capital Mogadishu, Ahmed Abdi, a pirate commander in the coastal village of Harardhere said.
According to elders and traders in the region, it was transporting vehicles and commodities such as sugar and cooking oil for Somali traders and had been sailing from the United Arab Emirates.
‘One of the two ships we hijacked yesterday is confirmed to have been chartered by Somali traders and there are already talks to release it. I think it will happen today,’ Ahmed Abdi told AFP by phone.
One Somali trader with a stake in the hijacked ship’s cargo said he was hopeful the vessel would be released soon.
‘There are efforts to free the ship and its crew, Somali traders and elders are already negotiating with the pirates and we are hopeful that they will soon release it,’ Abdullahi Moalim Barre told AFP.
On Saturday, pirates in Haradhere said they had captured two ships.
One of them was confirmed as the MV Ariana, a bulk carrier transporting 35,000 tonnes of soya beans, with owners in the United Kingdom and Greece and a crew of 24 Ukrainians.
Confusion surrounded the identity of the second ship, however, with unconfirmed reports from pirate sources that it was a Ukrainian ship carrying UN vehicles, among other things.
The Al-Misan’s hijacking brings to at least 18 the number of vessels currently held by the ransom-hunting Somali buccaneers plying some of the globe’s busiest maritime trade routes in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
Seychelles captures pirates
The Seychelles announced Sunday that it had apprehended three suspected Somali pirates in its vast exclusive economic zone, which covers 1.3 million square kilometres in the Indian Ocean.
‘The three men identified themselves as Somali. They were travelling in a six-metre skiff with several barrels of fuel and water onboard,’ a statement from the presidency said.
The Seychelles coast guard ship PS Andromache was alerted to the presence of suspected pirates in its waters by a warship from the European Union naval mission Atalanta on April 30 and caught the three on Saturday.
‘We are exceedingly encouraged by this latest suspected pirate arrest. The arrest is further indication that a coordinated approach is an effective means of combatting piracy in the region,’ said Seychelles President James Michel.
The operation brings to 12 of the number of suspected pirates currently held by the Seychelles authorities following the capture a week earlier of nine Somalis believed to be behind an attack on an Italian cruise ship.
MOGADISHU: Somali pirates hijacked another ship, a Pakistani-owned vessel carrying goods for Somali traders, over the weekend, a pirate commander and a local businessman told AFP Sunday.
The MV Al-Misan was captured around 100 kilometres off the capital Mogadishu, Ahmed Abdi, a pirate commander in the coastal village of Harardhere said.
According to elders and traders in the region, it was transporting vehicles and commodities such as sugar and cooking oil for Somali traders and had been sailing from the United Arab Emirates.
‘One of the two ships we hijacked yesterday is confirmed to have been chartered by Somali traders and there are already talks to release it. I think it will happen today,’ Ahmed Abdi told AFP by phone.
One Somali trader with a stake in the hijacked ship’s cargo said he was hopeful the vessel would be released soon.
‘There are efforts to free the ship and its crew, Somali traders and elders are already negotiating with the pirates and we are hopeful that they will soon release it,’ Abdullahi Moalim Barre told AFP.
On Saturday, pirates in Haradhere said they had captured two ships.
One of them was confirmed as the MV Ariana, a bulk carrier transporting 35,000 tonnes of soya beans, with owners in the United Kingdom and Greece and a crew of 24 Ukrainians.
Confusion surrounded the identity of the second ship, however, with unconfirmed reports from pirate sources that it was a Ukrainian ship carrying UN vehicles, among other things.
The Al-Misan’s hijacking brings to at least 18 the number of vessels currently held by the ransom-hunting Somali buccaneers plying some of the globe’s busiest maritime trade routes in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
Seychelles captures pirates
The Seychelles announced Sunday that it had apprehended three suspected Somali pirates in its vast exclusive economic zone, which covers 1.3 million square kilometres in the Indian Ocean.
‘The three men identified themselves as Somali. They were travelling in a six-metre skiff with several barrels of fuel and water onboard,’ a statement from the presidency said.
The Seychelles coast guard ship PS Andromache was alerted to the presence of suspected pirates in its waters by a warship from the European Union naval mission Atalanta on April 30 and caught the three on Saturday.
‘We are exceedingly encouraged by this latest suspected pirate arrest. The arrest is further indication that a coordinated approach is an effective means of combatting piracy in the region,’ said Seychelles President James Michel.
The operation brings to 12 of the number of suspected pirates currently held by the Seychelles authorities following the capture a week earlier of nine Somalis believed to be behind an attack on an Italian cruise ship.
