Bartamaha (Nairobi):- The believed Somali sea gang striked again and this time another vessel from South Korea is held captive. It is the latest among the numerous vessels that the bandits have been holding right now. The latest in their list is this South Korean fishing boat with 43 people on board. To be specific the vessel was carrying two South Koreans, two Chinese and 39 Kenyans and was hijacked on October 9 in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan island of Lamu. This has been the report presented by the Ministry of South Korea.

On the other side of the story, maritime observers working in Somalia with ECOTERRA Intl. had earlier confirmed that the vessel is already held off the Central Somali coast off Harardheere (Xarardheere), and a movement has been observed southward October 17.

There is argument that this is a case illegal fishing against piracy. The vessel has been noted to have been illegally entering the Somali fishing grounds with impunity over many years and then usually kept hanging out at the North Kenya banks as well as even off Malindi in order to cover the traces of the illegal activities. ECOTERRA Intl as well as the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme (SAP) has been asking the Somalis to have a due process to their illegal fishing cases and would eventually release those vessels which are proven not guilty of illegal fishing.

However, the above mentioned captivity of a vessel within Somali seas is not a single incident. There has several cases happened since 2001 that until now, there has been no clear news what is really happening in there. To sum up everything, there are already 26 foreign vessels plus one barge and at least 474 hostages or captives which includes an elderly British yachting couple and the 5 new hostages from Somaliland.

The following information that would be posted below came from the archives of ECOTERRA Intl. for the benefit of the next of kin of seafarers held hostage, who often do not get any information from the ship-owners or their governments

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Source:- World Correspondents

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