The seas are becoming increasingly more dangerous in our days.
You get the Houthis shooting missiles at cargo ships in the Red Sea. Ukraine and Russia’s warring military vessels in heavily mined Black Sea. Endless skirmishes between China and Philippines in the South China Sea – to name but a few of the trouble spots.
So the resurgence of the threat by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean is most unwelcome news.
It’s been less than a week that I wrote here in TGP about how Indian navy vessel INS Kolkata came to the rescue of the Bulgarian ship MV Ruen, hijacked by pirates back on December 14, 2023.
The daring operation lasted no less than 40 hours.
Kolkata intercepted of the hijacked Ship Ruen and forced it to stop with the help of the navy ship Subhadra, Drones, P8I maritime patrol aircraft & Marine Commandos air-dropped by C-17 aircraft.
That’s what it takes to overpower these guys.
Read more:
Lawless Seas: Indian Navy Raids and Rescues Cargo Ship Hijacked by Somali Pirates
Reuters reported:
“As a speed boat carrying more than a dozen Somali pirates bore down on their position in the western Indian Ocean, the crew of a Bangladeshi-owned bulk carrier sent out a distress signal and called an emergency hotline.
No one reached them in time. The pirates clambered aboard the Abdullah, firing warning shots and taking the captain and second officer hostage, Chief Officer Atiq Ullah Khan said in an audio message to the ship’s owners.
‘By the grace of Allah no one has been harmed so far’, Khan said in the message, recorded before the pirates took the crew’s phones. The company shared the recording with Reuters.
A week later, the Abdullah is anchored off the coast of Somalia, the latest victim of a resurgence of piracy that international navies thought they had brought under control.”
Records show more than 20 attempted hijackings since November, and Somali gang members openly admit they take advantage of the distraction provided by Houthi strikes.
“The waterways off Somalia include some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Each year, an estimated 20,000 vessels, carrying everything from furniture and apparel to grains and fuel, pass through the Gulf of Aden on their way to and from the Red Sea and Suez Canal, the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia.”