Breaking News- Yacht hijacked in Gulf of Aden

by BW Media round-up on 18 Dec 2008 Pirates have just hijacked a yacht in the Gulf of Aden, but there is no information to hand about the nationality of the boat or its crew. There were only two people on board so it is likely that it was a private cruising yacht. Sail-World is endeavouring to get more information.

It was the third vessel to be taken within 24 hours off Somalia despite the presence of international navies, and only one day after the United Nations gave approval for those nations already present in the Gulf of Aden to pursue pirates on land as well as on the ocean.

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan-based East African Seafarers Assistance programme, who has reported many times on the pirate situation, brought the news to the world. Several months ago, Mwangura was arrested for his part reporting to the world the fact that arms were aboard the hijacked ship Faina, destined for the Sudan, not Kenya. He has only recently been released pending trial.

Pirates also hijacked an Indonesian tugboat used by French oil company Total off the coast of Yemen and a Turkish cargo ship on Tuesday, Mwangura said.

However, Chinese sailors backed up by international navies fought off Somali pirates trying to hijack their ship yesterday. The dramatic high-seas encounter was among a fresh wave of attacks by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

A band of pirates boarded the Chinese-owned vessel Zhenhua 4 yesterday, but the sailors prevented them from invading their crew accommodation for several hours — enough time to seek help from the coalition forces.

“I’m actually very surprised that the crew managed to hold back the pirates. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it,” said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.

“Because of this action, the military helicopters came and they managed to chase the pirates away. The pirates on board eventually left the ship and the master is proceeding on his course,” he said.

The rescue of the Chinese crew was the latest successful intervention from the newly created EU naval task force, which took over patrols off the Horn of Africa from NATO on Dec. 8.

The force kept pirates from hijacking a Singapore tanker, an Italian cargo ship and a Greek ship last week, Choong said. 'Coalition forces deployed a helicopter to ward off the attacks. The three ships managed to escape,' he said.

The EU naval force, which started operations on December 8, has six warships, three surveillance planes and four helicopters. More than a dozen ships and hundreds of crew are still being held in various pirate hideouts along the Somali coast.