NAIROBI // Pirates have seized a merchant ship in the Red Sea and have taken it south towards Somali waters in the first successful hijacking in the region since 2012, maritime officials said on Sunday.
The vessel, identified as the MV Marzooqah, sent a distress signal on Saturday evening in the Red Sea and was then turned back to the Gulf of Aden, Andrew Mwangura, secretary general of the Seafarers Union of Kenya, said.
The number of attacks by Somali pirates dropped sharply in 2013, largely because of an international naval effort. But maritime experts have said the problem will remain as long as gangs operating out of Somalia are not disbanded on land.
Relative stability in Somalia in the past two years after 20 years of chaos and war has raised hopes that it could lead to a more permanent solution to a problem that has driven up shipping insurance rates, but it has yet to solve the issue.
“Now we are trying to follow this ship to try to find out ... which pirate group is holding them and what are their demands,” said Mr Mwangura, based in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
He said the vessel was crewed by Indians, Egyptians and Syrians and boarded by a gang of eight or nine pirates, and that about five gunmen were still on board. The MV Marzooqah had also been attacked in 2011, but had escaped that time, he said.
Mr Mwangura did not say how may crew were on the ship.
The European Union Naval Force Somalia (EU Navfor) said it had information that a merchant vessel had been attacked in the Red Sea, beyond its area of operation which lies further south, and that the ship was now under the control of pirates.
Lieutenant Commander Jacqueline Sherriff, a EU Navfor spokeswoman based in London, said the force would be using its maritime patrol aircraft to investigate and would use its naval assets once the ship entered its operational area.
The EU Navfor region of operations includes the southern tip of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean areas.
There were 176 confirmed piracy attacks in the region in 2011 and 36 in 2012. Sherriff said the number fell to seven in 2013 and no ships were successfully seized. But she said that the naval force had long warned sailors that the threat remained.
“Because the conditions in Somalia have not changed significantly or to any great extent ... we have been saying there is no room for complacency,” she said.
* Reuters
