Pirates operating from Somalia have captured three ships in the last 24 hours according to several sources. Two of the ships, the UK-flagged chemical tanker St James Park and the Yemeni freighter Al-Mahmoudia2 were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, the first two ships to be hijacked in the Gulf of Aden since July 10, 2009.
The third ship hijacked was the Greek-flagged bulk carrier Navios Apollon. The 52,000 ton ship was boarded by 10 men in speedboats in the Indian Ocean northeast of the Seychelles.
By my very unofficial count, that brings the number of commercial ships hijacked by Somali pirates to over 50 for the year. Will be interesting what the final official tally is, and how many ships have been hijacked after the end of the summer Monsoon season. The number will be larger than expected, and unfortunately will not reflect the hard work of the naval forces in the Gulf of Aden.
It will be also interesting to see the reaction in Great Britain to a UK-flagged ship hijacked.
No comments:
Post a Comment