Somalia: Ship feared hijacked
2005-10-24 16:08
Nairobi - An unidentified merchant vessel is feared to have been hijacked in pirate-infested Somali waters in the latest surge of attacks on commercial ships that has sparked dire maritime warnings, an official said on Monday.
Contact with the ship, which was transporting cargo from Dubai to Somalia, was lost last week shortly after two Maltese-registered vessels were reported hijacked off the coast of the lawless country, the official said.
"The ship transporting general cargo from Dubai to Somalia was hijacked off the Somali coast, it has not been in contact since late last week," said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the seafarers' assistance programme (SAP).
"Normally, if the vessel sank, they would have sent an SOS which would have been received in several ports, but in the case of a hijacking there is no SOS dispatched, meaning it was hijacked," he said from the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Spate of hijackings in Somalia
Details of the ship's ownership and registry were not immediately clear, Mwangura said, adding, however, the vessel was neither of two Maltese-registered freighters that were hijacked earlier in the week.
On Thursday, the Greek merchant marine ministry reported the loss of contact and apparent hijacking, later confirmed by the SAP, of the Greek-owned, Maltese-registered MV San Carlos oil tanker with 25 crew on board.
A day earlier, the SAP said the Maltese-flagged MV Pagania and an unknown number of Ukrainian crewmembers had been hijacked by Somali pirates who were demanding a $700 000 ransom for their release.
The third hijacking comes as officials in Somalia's fledgling transitional government and the International Maritime Board (IMB) appealed for urgent help from navies and coast guards in the region to stop the spate of pirate attacks.