Horn of Africa Piracy Activity Update - 18 Feb

Following the hijack of two tankers last week, IRENE SL and SAVINA CAYLYN, and 3 vessels managing to evade hijack attempts, this week has been somewhat less active but nonetheless alarming.

A Maltese bulk carrier, not having registered her transit with authorities and a fishing vessel, which caused some consternation as the owners had to alert authorities of her capture, were hijacked in the Arabian Sea and Somali Basin, respectively.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has changed its policy on private armed guards, and now accepts operators must be able to defend their ships against rising pirate attacks, whilst Donna Hopkins, coordinator of Counter Piracy and Maritime Security for the U.S. government, stated, "Somali piracy has grown from being essentially a garden variety, local, off the coast protest against illegal fishing ... into a seriously networked and capable, transnational, organised and criminal enterprise." (Reuters). 

Jacob Stolt-Nielsen, a Norwegian shipowner, told the (DN) "pirates caught in international waters have always been punished with death, most often performed on the spot," and advocated reintroducing the measure (The Foreigner). The message was not well recieved by the Somali community in Norway, who stated that it "...puts Norwegian, and other sailors and hostages, in great danger."

Of newsworthiness this week is the sentencing of a Somali pirate. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the Somali man convicted of hijacking an American-flagged cargo ship, MAERSK ALABAMA, and kidnapped its Master off the coast of Somalia, was sentenced in U.S. Federal District Court in Manhattan in February 2011 to 33 years and 9 months in prison (NY Times). It was stated that he "derived joy from the suffering of victims."

The piracy events in the Horn of Africa region this week are;

Hijacks:

• 12 February, Maltese bulk carrier MV SININ with 23 crew was hijacked in position 1926N 06329E, in the North

  

   Arabian Sea, approximately 280nm Southeast of Ras al Had, Oman. The vessel was on route to Singapore from Fujairah, UAE. She was not registered with MSC(HOA), nor had she reported to UKMTO. The position of the hijack is 225km South of where MV IRENE SL was hijacked (9 Feb).

• 13 February, FV ALFARDOUS hijacked approximately in position 1200N 05302.1E, around 8nm south of Samhah island, Yemen. Pirates attacked and hijacked the Yemeni  fishing vessel, taking 8 crewmembers hostage in the process. 

• 16 February, underway crude tanker, NS CENTURY, a SCF Novoship in position 2053.2N – 06939.1E, around 40nm south of Porbandar, India, 3 pirate skiffs were detected with mothership in the area. The armed security team on board 'discouraged' an attack despite the skiffs coming within 3 cables of the vessel. No shots were fired by the pirates.