Somali pirates attack two more ships in Indian Ocean

Somali pirates attack two more ships in Indian Ocean

 

 

Gun-toting buccaneers were reported to have stormed a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast, while another group tried to seize a United Nations World Food Programme ship off the coast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

 

The attacks, disclosed by the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre, bring the number of hijacks and attempted hijacks off the Somali coast to 69 this year alone.

 

They came as American warships remain in an armed standoff with pirates who captured the MV Faina, a Ukrainian boat carrying tanks and weapons that was hijacked en route to Kenya on September 25.

 

The pirate gang's self-styled leader, Sugule Adi, issued an extraordinary threat to blow the ship up and his own men along with it unless they were paid the $20m (£12m) ransom that they have demanded for the 21-strong crew's release.

 

Speaking to a news agency via a satellite phone, Mr Adi vowed the threat would be carried out by Monday night.

 

"We held a consultative meeting for more than three hours and decided to blow up the ship and its cargo - us included - if the ship owners did not meet our ransom demand," he said.

 

The latest drama will add to the growing calls for an international force to patrol the waters off the Somali coast, which have mirrored the country's collapse into lawlessness and civil war over the last two years.

 

Such is the current risk from piracy that it threatens the entire shipping industry through Suez Canal to the north, which is one of the world's busiest maritime traffic routes and which connects Europe with growing markets in Asia and the Middle East.

 

Last week, the Nato military alliance announced plans to send seven frigates to the area to combat piracy and provide escorts for aid ships. The move followed a request from the World Food Programme, which says its efforts to help famine-struck Somali refugees are being jeopardised.

 

The European Union has also agreed to start planning for a joint naval force that could be ready for deployment by the end of the year.

 

"Piracy is a serious problem for shipping in that area," said Nato spokesman James Appathurai. "It is also an immediate threat to the lives of the people in Somalia. Substantially more than 40 percent of the population depend on the food aid being delivered by ship."

 

Little extra detail was available yesterday on the two latest attacks. The tanker vessel, which was attacked at around lunchtime on Friday, was said by the International Maritime Bureau to be Greek, althout the Greek shipping authorities said they were not aware of their vessels being attacked. The WFP ship, which was attacked on Thursday, took evasive action and managed to escape.

 

Piracy has long been a problem in Somalia, where the lack of a functioning government over most of the last decade and a half has allowed its vast coastline to be turned into a perfect refuge point for criminal gangs.

 

The problem abruptly stopped during the brief reign of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006, when a coalition of tough Islamists imposed law and order across the country and threatened pirates with the death penalty.

 

But it resurged with a vengeance from 2007 onwards, after a US-backed invasion by Ethiopia to topple the Islamist government ended with the country relapsing into armed factionalism and anarchy.

 

Today piracy is the country's only "growth" industry, turning the ports that line Somalia's arid coastline into a modern-day Hispaniola of pirate safe havens. Many boatyards now adapt fishing launches to act as gunboats, while hotels and restaurants have been set up to feed the hundreds of foreign crew taken hostages over recent months. A total of 11 vessels are currently being held to ransom, with an estimated 200 crewmen in captivity. Most shipping lines have felt they have had little choice but to pay the ransoms demanded by the pirates, despite concerns that it has simply encouraged more kidnapping attempts.

 

Last week, the crew of an Iranian cargo ship and a Japanese tanker were both released after ransom payments, believed to be around $1.6 million in the Japanese case.

 

Recent reports have accused officials in Puntland, an autonomous region of Somalia, of turning a blind eye to the pirate activity in return for a cut of the profits made from ransoms.

 

Noel Choong, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau, said officials had issued a fresh reminder to ships not to stray within more than 200 miles of the coast Somalia. He added, however, that it was impossible for coalition forces to police such a vast stretch of sea properly.

 

"As long as there is no firm deterrent, pirates will continue to attack ships. But the military cannot be everywhere since this is a wide area," he said.

 

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