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3 Finnish ships hijacked
03/05/2007 14:39 - (SA)
Nairobi - Pirates have hijacked three Finnish fishing vessels off the coast of Somalia's semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland, a maritime official said on Thursday.
"We are still investigating the nationality and the number of the crew as well as the ownership of the vessels," Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan branch of the Seafarers Assistance Programme, told AFP.
He said an unspecified number of gunmen hijacked the boats early on Wednesday.
Pirate attacks have increased in recent weeks off the coast of Somalia after dying out during six months of strict Islamist rule in southern and central Somalia at the end of last year.
There were scores of pirate attacks in the unpatrolled waters off the 3 700km Somali coastline between March 2005 and June last year.
The Islamists were defeated by the Ethiopian-backed forces of Somalia's transitional government four months ago, although remnant Islamists and clan fighters have fought back in deadly battles in Mogadishu in recent weeks.
Puntland declared itself autonomous from the rest of Somalia in August 1998 under the leadership of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the current president of the Somali interim government.
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