Pirates seize 2 more vessels
Source: Agencies |
December 30, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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Somali pirates have seized a chemical tanker and a cargo vessel, underlining the continued risk to shipping in some of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.
Somalia has been mired in chaos with no effective central government since 1991 and pirate gangs operating from coastal havens have flourished over the past few years.
They have made tens of millions of dollars from seizing ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, linking Europe to Asia, and are also hunting far into the Indian Ocean to evade foreign navies sent to protect commercial shipping.
On Monday, pirates seized the British-flagged chemical tanker St James Park in the Gulf of Aden and the Panama-registered cargo ship Navios Apollon, taking the number of vessels they hold to more than 10.
Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers' Association said the chemical tanker and its 26 crew had been sailing to Thailand from Spain with a chemical used to make plastics when it sent a distress signal from the Gulf of Aden.
He said crew members were from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.
On the same day, pirates released the Singaporean-flagged container ship Kota Wajar, saying they received a US$4 million ransom for the vessel seized in October far out in the Indian Ocean near the Seychelles archipelago.
An official with the managers of Navios Apollon, said the vessel was seized about 800 nautical miles off the Somali coast, north of the Seychelles.
Somalia's Western-backed government has promised to battle piracy but it controls little more than a few blocks of the capital of Mogadishu, and the hefty ransoms are attracting more investors in piracy from within the country and abroad.
Somalia has been mired in chaos with no effective central government since 1991 and pirate gangs operating from coastal havens have flourished over the past few years.
They have made tens of millions of dollars from seizing ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, linking Europe to Asia, and are also hunting far into the Indian Ocean to evade foreign navies sent to protect commercial shipping.
On Monday, pirates seized the British-flagged chemical tanker St James Park in the Gulf of Aden and the Panama-registered cargo ship Navios Apollon, taking the number of vessels they hold to more than 10.
Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers' Association said the chemical tanker and its 26 crew had been sailing to Thailand from Spain with a chemical used to make plastics when it sent a distress signal from the Gulf of Aden.
He said crew members were from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.
On the same day, pirates released the Singaporean-flagged container ship Kota Wajar, saying they received a US$4 million ransom for the vessel seized in October far out in the Indian Ocean near the Seychelles archipelago.
An official with the managers of Navios Apollon, said the vessel was seized about 800 nautical miles off the Somali coast, north of the Seychelles.
Somalia's Western-backed government has promised to battle piracy but it controls little more than a few blocks of the capital of Mogadishu, and the hefty ransoms are attracting more investors in piracy from within the country and abroad.
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