A Follow up to an earlier posting
Further Information on recent "yacht hijack" off Somalia
Ecoterra International report today (Sunday 28 December) with some clarification concerning the attack reported below on 17 December.
It has become clear now that the private but commercially used tourist-motor yacht had Yemeni coastguard officers contracted as ship-riders. The officers opened fire on an approaching skiff after radio-warnings were not adhered to and the skiff maintained a collision course even after course adjustments made by the yacht. The skiff after several shots were fired then turned away and didn't return, while the yacht - after dropping the guards at a Yemen border-port - proceeded undisturbed to Salalah in Oman.
See the original report below.
NAIROBI, Dec 17 (Reuters)
Reuters report that pirates have hijacked a yacht in the Gulf of Aden, the third ship to be taken within 24 hours off Somalia despite the presence of international navies.
"I know that a yacht was taken on Tuesday night. There were two people on board but we have no other information on that case," Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan-based East African Seafarers Assistance programme.
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.
A surge in hijackings in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean this year has earned Somali gunmen millions of dollars in ransoms, hiked shipping insurance costs and sent foreign navies rushing to patrol the busy shipping lanes off Somalia.
More information as we receive it.
