French warship detains 11 suspected Somali pirates

Posted on Mar 5 2010 - 3:34pm by sayfudiin Abdalle
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Bartamaha (Nairobi):- A French warship has arrested 11 suspected Somali pirates and destroyed their vessels, European Union naval forces said Friday. EU NAVFOR Somalia, the EU’s anti-piracy mission in the region, said the FS Nivose had been sent after a pirate attack group that had earlier failed to hijack a French vessel.
“On arrival at the scene they found 11 suspected pirates and pirate paraphernalia in the skiffs including a rocket launcher, grappling hooks and several fuel barrels,” EU NAVFOR said in a statement.
“The mother ship and one skiff have been destroyed and the suspected pirates taken into custody.”
Piracy is rife off the Horn of Africa nation, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
Young men take to the seas despite the presence of international warships, which were dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in 2008 to combat a rise in piracy.
Attacks are expected to rise in the coming months due to calmer weather, and already this week there has been a spike in activity.
On Monday, Saudi tanker Al Nisr Al Saudi and its crew of 14 was hijacked.
Private security guards aboard a Spanish ship on Thursday repelled a pirate attack, during which the vessel was hit by a rocket- propelled grenade.
None of the crew of the Cadiz-registered Albacan were injured in the attack.
Ship owners have turned to private guards, barbed wire and water canons to fend off the pirates that patrol Somalia’s coastal waters looking for multimillion-dollar ransoms.
Six ships and over 100 sailors are currently in the hands of pirates.

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Source: earthtimes