Mombasa;Bartamaha; Nine North Korean sailors who were shot and wounded by Somali pirates this week in an unsuccessful hijacking bid arrived in Kenya Saturday for treatment.
Four seriously injured seafarers were taken to a hospital in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa while others had received treatment on board, port police chief Ayub Gitonga said.
“Nine crew members were injured as a result of the attack. Five were treated onboard while the rest required extra medical attention,” Gitonga said.
The MV Chol San Bong Chong Nyon Ho was attacked by heavily armed pirates on Wednesday off the Kenyan coast while on its way to the east Africa country.
Somali pirates have turned to the Indian Ocean from the Gulf of Aden — which is patrolled by foreign warships — to hunt for vessels.
Despite the increased international military presence off Somalia’s coastline — the longest on the African continent — pirates have raked in huge ransoms.
Alongside the EU, the United States and other national navies deployed warships off the Somali coast in December 2008 to protect shipping and secure maritime routes in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Source: KBC.
