NAIROBI – Pirates hijacked an Indonesian tugboat used by French oil company Total off Yemen yesterday and a Turkish cargo ship was also reported captured, the latest in a string of attacks blamed on Somali gunmen.
Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said the tugboat was heading to Malaysia when it was hijacked. Total confirmed the attack.
“There’s been a hijacking of a boat belonging to one of our subcontractors with whom we work regularly. It is believed the hostages are mostly Indonesian. The boat does not belong to Total,” said a spokesman for the French company in Paris.
A 100-metre (330-ft) cargo ship belonging to an Istanbul-based shipping company had also been hijacked, Turkish state-run news agency Anatolian reported a US naval official as saying.
“It was an Antigua-flagged cargo ship operated by Isko Marine Shipping company of Turkey. It was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden today ,” Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieut Nathan Christensen said in Dubai by telephone. He gave no further details.
Scores of attacks this year by Somali pirates have brought millions of dollars in ransoms, increased shipping insurance costs and sent foreign navies rushing to the busy shipping lanes off the Horn of Africa nation.
Washington has circulated a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council that would give countries the right to pursue pirates on land as well as sea. – (Reuters)