Security

Somali Pirates Release Tanker Somali pirates released a chemical tanker and its North Korean crew on Tuesday, after holding the vessel for four months. A maritime official says the 23,000 deadweight ton "Theresa VIII" was seized on November 16 last year in the south Somali Basin, with 28 crew members on board.Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program says the vessel was released after a ransom of about US$3.5 million was paid.Andrew Mwangura, East African Seafarers Assistance Program:"MT Theresa is now free and she is underway heading to Mombassa. She is expected here in the next three to four days. MT Theresa and her 28 North Korean crew were hijacked by pirates about 140 nautical miles north west of Seychelles on the 16th of November while underway to Mombassa laden with palm oil."Somali sea gangs have plagued the busy shipping lanes off the African nations coast for many years, earning ransoms worth millions of dollars from most vessels captured.Somali pirates are held responsible for more than half of the 406 reported incidents last year. They hijacked 47 vessels, taking 867 crew members hostage, according to the International Maritime Bureau.Most vessels and crew are released unharmed after a...

EU NAVFOR destroys more suspect pirate skiffs EU NAVFOR units operating in the Somali Basin, between the Seychelles and the Somali coast, have discovered more suspected pirate activity. In an area close to the disruption of 5 pirate attack groups by EU NAVFOR at the weekend, EU NAVFOR German warship FGS EMDEN intercepted a suspect pirate group consisting of a mother ship and two skiffs.The pirate mother ship was first detected in the late hours of 11 March by the EU NAVFOR Luxemburg Patrol aircraft who directed the EU NAVFOR German warship Emden onto the pirate group. On approach by Emden, two small skiffs attempted to flee the scene and pirate paraphernalia consisting of ladders and hooks were seen being jettisoned overboard. EMDENs helicopter eventually rounded up the trio and boarding parties were sent onboard. All suspected pirates have now been returned to the mother ship, one of the skiffs has been sunk and EU NAVFOR ships EMDEN has retained the third skiff as evidence.EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation ATALANTAs main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the World Food Program (WFP) and vessels of AMISOM, and to protect vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and...

Somali pirates freed a North Korean chemical tanker Somali pirates freed a North Korean chemical tanker and its 28 crew Tuesday after the owners delivered a ransom, the European Union Naval Force said.The MV Theresa VIII was hijacked last November, northwest of the island nation of the Seychelles.The vessel had not asked for assistance but warships were monitoring the situation, said Cmdr. John Harbour. He could not provide details on the ransom.Also on Tuesday, the EU Naval Force said it intercepted two pirate groups. The two groups, each consisting of a mothership and two skiffs, were tracked by maritime patrol aircraft after commercial ships reported attempted attacks.Seventeen pirates in total had been detained, Harbour said. One of the attacks took place nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the Somali coast and the other one was northwest of the Seychelles.Pirates typically use larger ships to tow their small, fast speedboats out to sea. The motherships also carry extra food, water and fuel, allowing the pirates to extend their range away from the Gulf of Aden, which is heavily patrolled by a coalition of international navies.Experts say piracy will continue to be a problem until an effective government is established on Somalias...

New premium for goods Shipping lines have introduced a new insurance premium for goods destined for Mombasa port, piling pressure on the cost of imported products in the region.The new premium, known as the general cartage insurance, stems from a recent resurgence of piracy in the Gulf of Aden where more than 45 ships and 800 sailors have been hijacked in the past 14 months.Strong demand for South African coal in the fast-growing Asian economies is also taking up large fractions of the available shipping capacity and exposing more ships to pirate attacks adding pressure to the cost of sea transport.Shippers began levying the new premium on March 1 and importers have promised to pass on the additional cost to consumers, heralding a surge in the cost of imported goods in the coming weeks.Somali pirates have in the recent past hijacked oil tankers, passenger ships and yachts but have since turned their guns on the slow-moving bulk coal carriers.Gilbert Langat, the chief executive officer of Kenya Shippers Council (KSC), whose membership is composed of both importers and exporters, said the new insurance premiums could push the cost of imported goods by a margin of up to 10 per cent.The levying...

After four months the russian crew is free The Russian crew of the Thai Union 3 fishing vessel, who were in Somali pirates captivity for over four months, returned early on Monday to the city of Kaliningrad happy but meager, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.The Thai Union 3 tuna fishing vessel with 23 Russians, two Filipinos and two Ghanaians on board was hijacked by two pirate skiffs about 370 km (200 nautical miles) north of the Seychelles October 29. It was released on March 7 after a ransom was paid.A plane carrying the Russians landed in Kaliningrad airport Khrabrovo after midnight March 15. The fishermen were met by relatives, friends and journalists.We always wait for our husbands with joy and excitement, but we have never before had to experience such suffering, Tamara, the wife of fisherman Leonid Gerasimov, told RIA Novosti.Thai Union is a Thai group of companies exporting canned tuna.Pirates based in Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991, hijacked more than 40 vessels in 2009, and have already seized two this year.Source:shiptalk

Suspicions about its cargo Yemens security forces have detained an Iranian ship in Yemeni coastal waters off the island of Socotra because of suspicions about its cargo, and the crew are under investigation, state media said on Monday.The ship, which state media said had entered Yemeni waters illegally, was held after fishermen reported its presence to authorities. The crew, 15 Pakistani sailors and an Iranian captain, are being investigated and the ship searched.The security apparatus in the Socotra archipelago does not rule out that the Iranian ship may have been involved in smuggling drugs to Yemen, the Defence Ministrys online newspaper said. It did not say when the ship was detained.Yemen, at the forefront of Western security concerns since a failed December attack on a U.S.-bound plane, boosted security on its coast earlier this year to prevent militants reaching its shores from nearby Somalia to reinforce al Qaeda in Yemen.Al Qaedas Yemen-based arm claimed responsibility for the failed December attack. Western allies and neighbouring oil exporter Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability on several fronts in impoverished Yemen to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.Yemen, whose location at the southern rim of the...

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed the Code of Conduct The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed the "Code of Conduct on the Suppression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden (Code of Conduct)" on March 10, becoming the 13th country to do so.Dr. Jubarah Bin Alsuraisry, Minister of Transport of Saudi Arabia, signed the code on behalf of his government during an official visit to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) headquarters in London.The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following the instructions of King Abdullah, exerts every efforts to build bridges of cooperation with countries all over the world, especially by taking initiatives and participating in an effective way in order to achieve stability and world security, where through the United Nations and its specialized agencies, or through continuous cooperation with all countries in this field, Dr. Alsuraisry said.IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropolous welcomed the signing by Saudi Arabia as a boost to the effective implementation of the Djbouti Code of Conduct in the region.The unabated acts of piracy, not only in waters off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden but also in the wider expanse of the...

Money matter The owner of the hijacked Saudi ship for which Somali pirates are demanding a ransom of $20 million has said that it was the vessels insurance company that received the ransom demand and that he himself had engaged in no direct contact with the pirates.All contact has gone through the Saudi insurance company via its head office in Jeddah, and the negotiation process is continuing for want of any other solution, said Kamal Muhammed Al-Urri, owner of the Al-Nisr Al-Saudi vessel.The priority at the moment is the safety of the crew of 13 Sri Lankans and their Greek captain. The hijackers have allowed them to speak to their families by satellite phone, and they assured them that they were in good health despite the distressing situation, Al-Urri said.The specialist in trading and investment. Al-Urri said he hoped to see international action to confront piracy on the high seas which, he said, was raising insurance premiums.Al-Nisr Al-Saudi is a relatively small fuel oil carrier and was empty of cargo when it was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in the first days of March. Officials said it was not registered with maritime authorities and was outside the designated route...

Steps to combat hijacking of ships The Government has taken following steps to combat the incidents of piracy of ships/vessels.(i) The Directorate General of Shipping has issued various advisories to ships/vessels transiting through Gulf of Aden providing information relating to piracy in the area and also providing details of patrol convoy timing followed by the Indian Naval vessel patrolling in the region.(ii)Advisories and information obtained from various international forces present in the area are regularly forwarded to the Indian shipping fraternity.(iii)An Indian Navy warship has been deployed in the area from 23.10.2008 to escort Indian ships and other ships seeking assistance.(iv)The Indian delegation made intervention in the 101st Council meeting of the International Maritime Organization in London in November, 2008 and proposed a UN Task Force under a unified command to prevent the ever increasing piracy attacks off the Somali coast.Till date only one Indian seafarer is reported to have been killed by pirates and the flag state is Panama. The death and injury compensation is the responsibility of ship owners who obtain insurance cover through Protection and Indemnity Club.Government of India has also raised the matter at various international fora including the International Maritime Organization in order to invoke...

Piracy problem The U.S. envoy to Tanzania urged African nations to prosecute Somali pirates apprehended in the Indian Ocean as a way of tackling the continents growing piracy problem.Right now, Kenya and Seychelles are the only two countries in Africa that are prosecuting pirates, said U.S. Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt. More countries need to come forward. Thats how to stop it.The coast off Somalia is among the worlds most dangerous for merchant shipping. The number of attacks worldwide jumped by 40 percent last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents.The issue of jurisdiction to prosecute cropped up after a U.S. Navy warship prevented an attack on a ship flying the Tanzanian flag last month and apprehended eight suspects.He said the ship saved by U.S. forces was actually a North Korean vessel flying the flag of the east African nation and the United States now was deciding who might prosecute the suspects.The law allows some prosecution only when Tanzanian citizens or Tanzanian ships are attacked, Lenhardt told a news conference. The Tanzanian government has to decide what it wants to do and how it is going to deal with this...