Soldiers turn hijackers of N.Korea ship in Somali port
Original source: Reuters
NAIROBI, Dec 19 (Reuters) - A dozen soldiers guarding a North Korean ship impounded in Somalia's autonomous Puntland region for maritime violations have hijacked the vessel and its 33 crew, government and naval sources said on Wednesday.
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MV Dae San, N Korean Cargo Ship Photo: Shipspotting.com
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Puntland had been the epicentre of Somali piracy but the use of armed guards on ships and a concerted crackdown by international navies has seen the number of successful pirate hijackings fall in 2012.
MV Daesan, a North Korean ship ferrying cement to Somali capital Mogadishu, was impounded and fined last month by Puntland authorities who accused it of ditching its cargo off Somalia's coast.
The ship dumped the cement into the ocean because it had been rejected by importers in Mogadishu, who claimed that the cement was wet and unusable, authorities said.
However, a government source told Reuters a dozen soldiers guarding the vessel hijacked it on Tuesday night. It was now at sea, destination unknown.
A naval source at the port of Bosasso, near where the ship lay seized over the past month, confirmed the claim.
"The government is preparing troops to rescue the ship," the naval source said.
In 2005, Puntland's naval forces hijacked a Thai fishing boat and demanded an $800,000 ransom for its release, according to Jay Bahadur, a Canadian author of a book on Somali piracy.
About 136 hostages taken in the Indian Ocean off Somalia are still being held captive, but the number of hijackings of ships has dropped to seven in the first 11 months of this year compared to 24 in the whole of 2011.
(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by James Macharia and Michael Roddy)
MV Daesan was at the centre of a dramatic rescue effort in July after the vessel came close to sinking off the Oman coast. A helicopter from the Royal Air Force of Oman and tugs from Duqm port assisted in the rescue.
OCEANUSLive: A piracy incident alert was issued 18 Dec by NATO Shipping Centre stating a vessel was hijacked at a Bosasso anchorage and had set sail, destination unknown.
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