Bartamaha (Nairobi):-  The German freight ship hijacked on Sunday off the coast of Kenya is now heading towards the Somali coast, the European Union anti-piracy force confirmed on Monday.

EU Naval Force Somalia spokesman Lt. Col Per Klingvall said the pirates took control of the German freight ship Beluga Fortune about 750 nautical miles outside east of Mogadishu. “Beluga Fortune was attacked 750 nautical miles outside east of Mogadishu by two skiffs on Sunday and pirates came on board the vessel,” Klingvall told Xinhua by telephone.

“We are investigating if the pirates are also in control of the crew. The vessel is now moving towards the Somali coast,” he said.

Klingvall said there are 16 crew members aboard, adding the agency had not established where she was heading when she was pirated on the world’s most dangerous waters.

However, East Africa’s Coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) Andrew Mwangura said the vessel has 12 crew, including a Russian, three Ukrainians and eight Filipinos.

The German shipping company Beluga-Reederei, which owns the vessel, reportedly said Somali pirates were behind the attack and that the ship was on its way from the United Arab Emirates to South Africa.

The Beluga Fortunate is the second commercial vessel to be captured in the East Africa’s coastline in the last three days.

On Saturday night, pirates seized a Singapore-flagged liquefied gas tanker 105 miles off the coast of Kenya in the Somali Basin.

The MV York was traveling from Mombasa, Kenya to Mahe in the Seychelles with 17 crew on board when pirates seized it, Klingvall said.

He said a Turkish warship sent a helicopter to investigate the attack and that its crew members saw pirates armed with weapons on board the MV York.

The 5,076-ton MV York had one German, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos aboard, the EU force said in a statement.

Somalia is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important shipping channels.

The country has been plagued by factional fighting between warlords, without a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

International military officials have vowed to fight Somali pirates who have moved into the waters off the coast of East Africa.

Crews have been successfully repelling more attacks, making it harder for pirates to capture ships and earn multi-million-dollar ransoms. But the pirates have responded more violently.

Many ship owners are investing in physical defenses like stringing razor wire and adding fire hoses that can hit attackers with streams of high-pressure water. Some ships are even having electric fence-style systems installed.

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Source:- Xinhua

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