Pirates seize ship off Somalia
2002-01-18 17:07
Beirut - Pirates have seized a Lebanese ship off Somalia, taken its crew hostage and demanded a ransom to release them, shipping industry sources and Lebanese officials said on Friday.
A representative of the I&F shipping company, which operates the Lebanese-flagged cargo ship Princess Sarah, said a group of gunmen attacked the ship early on Monday, forcing their way aboard and taking the crew hostage.
"The ship managed to get away initially, but while it was nearing shore the gunmen returned and were able to get aboard," he said by telephone from the Lebanese port city of Tripoli.
Shipping security sources in London said the Princess Sarah had almost escaped its attackers, aided by rough seas that stopped them from boarding, but had suffered an engine failure at a crucial moment. He described the hijackers as "six armed men in two white speedboats".
British coastguards on Monday received a distress call from the ship, which they believed was a Greek-owned vessel registered in Rotterdam, but thought the pirates had been unable to board the ship.
A source in the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said it had learned the attackers were demanding about $200 000 to free the crew, which includes eight Ukrainians, four Lebanese and an unspecified number of Egyptians.
The shipping company official said the vessel's owners were in contact with the vessel but refusing to negotiate with the attackers over the crew, who he described as terrified and running low on food and fuel.
"It's a question of how long the food is going to hold out. There's not enough fuel to get them anywhere, and anytime there are gunmen involved there is an element of fear," he said.
The ship, with a capacity to carry 3 000 tons, was headed to Aden after unloading fertiliser at Mombasa.
The Somali coastline is considered one of the most dangerous in the Indian ocean. At least four ships have been seized by pirates in recent years and their owners made to pay millions of dollars in ransom.
The last ship to be hijacked was the Kenyan-registered trawler Bahari Kenya. Its crew - including Kenyans, Romanians and Italians - were released in November after the ship's Italian owner paid a large ransom, security sources said.
The hijacking was linked to a power struggle in Somalia's northern province of Puntland, during which Puntland leader Abdullahi Yusuf was overthrown, they said.