Somalia Pirates (April 2008)
Somalia Pirates
Update 4/15/2009 Pirates launched a grenade attack against a second US cargo ship off Somalia on Wednesday “in retaliation” for the deaths of their comrades during the rescue of American cargo captain Richard Phillips. Somali pirates were back to business as usual Tuesday, defiantly seizing four more ships with 60 hostages after U.S. sharpshooters rescued an American freighter captain. “No one can deter us,” one bandit boasted. The freed skipper, Richard Phillips, will return home to the United States on Wednesday, after reuniting with his 19-man crew in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, according to the shipping company Maersk Line Ltd. The U.S. and its allies battled Somalia’s pirates on two fronts Wednesday, with French forces seizing a bandit mother ship and Washington seeking to keep the marauders from their spoils. Another U.S. freighter headed to port with armed sailors aboard after pirates damaged it with gunshots and grenades
Update 4/12/2009 Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued and freed unharmed after being kidnapped by Somali based pirates. Phillips who had been held captive for five days in a life boat by Somalia pirates as U.S. military ships surrounded the area so that the pirates could not escape with their hostage. Captain Phillips was taken when the pirates attempted to seize his vessel the Maersk Alabama. Capt. Richard Phillips’ crew, who said they were safe after he offered himself to the pirates as a hostage, erupted in cheers aboard their ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. Some waved an American flag and fired a flare in celebration. Three of the Somalia pirates were killed in the rescued and one is being held as a prisoner.
The rescue was a dramatic blow to the pirates who have preyed on international shipping and hold more than a dozen ships with about 230 foreign sailors. But it is unlikely to do much to stop the region’s growing pirate threat which has transformed one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes into one of its most dangerous as a result of the constant hijackings and actions of the Pirates based in Somalia..
Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, said: “Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,” he told The Associated Press. “We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men.” Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told the AP from one of Somalia’s piracy hubs, Eyl, that: “From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages).” “Now they became our number one enemy,” Habeb said of U.S. forces.
How The Conflict Started
On Wednesday Somalia based pirates attempted to seize the crew and cargo of the Maersk Alabama, a US based cargo ship carrying aid for Somalia and Kenya among other containers. The attack began early yesterday when the Alabama was hijacked about 300 miles south-east of Eyl off Somalia’s eastern coast. This is the first U.S. ship and crew that the Somalia Pirates have attempted to hijack. The first encounter with Americans did not go so well for the pirates as the 20 man crew who been trained to deal with such a situation ended up foiling the high seas hijackers that have been so successful in the past.
The four hijackers armed with Kalashnikovs were successful in boarding the vessel but the crew was able to overpower one of the pirates and regain control over the ship. The remaining three fled off taking the captain, Richard Phillips an American as a hostage. A spokesman for Maersk, the largest container shipping company in the world, said that Phillips was believed to be unharmed at that time. His family had gathered at his farmhouse in Vermont waiting for news. The Alabama was the sixth ship to be hijacked off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast in a week. The surge in attacks has coincided with a return to calm seas after the monsoon period, and has seen the main pirate gangs shift their focus away from their usual hunting ground in the Gulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, which is now patrolled by at least 15 warships in separate EU, US and Nato-led forces.
According to second mate Ken Quinn, who spoke by telephone to CNN, the pirates sank their speedboat shortly after boarding the Alabama early on Wednesday. The crew managed to regain control of the ship from the pirates by “brute force”, according to another crew member’s account. Phillips is reported to have convinced the gunmen to board the lifeboat after agreeing to go with them, in order to secure the safety of his fellow sailors. When the pirates first appeared, the Alabama crew, conscious that the nearest US naval vessel was more than 300 miles away, took evasive action for three to five hours to win time, but the four pirates eventually boarded just before dawn.
On April 8, 2009, the USS Bainbridge was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in response to a hostage situation. The warship reached the Maersk Alabama early on April 9. The pirates are reportedly floating nearby in the ship’s lifeboat, out of fuel, while they continue to hold the ship’s captain hostage.
It appears Phillips took action as soon as pirates began to swarm aboard. According to conversations with the crews family members Phillips radioed his crew and told them to lock themselves away in a room, then faced the pirates himself. “He said the pirates were desperate,” said Zoya Quinn, the wife of the ship’s second mate. “They were going all over the stairs, back and forth, trying to find them, and they couldn’t.” How Phillips was taken, and then how the crew overpowered the pirates, is still unclear. At some point, the crew ended up capturing one of the pirates and making him their own hostage. “The crew was holding a pirate, and they were supposed to trade for Phillips. The Somalis didn’t go through with their end of the deal. They kept Richard,” another sister-in-law, Lea Coggio, told the Los Angeles Times.
History Of Somalia Pirates
Somali pirates have received over US$150 million during the 12 months prior to November 2008 according to a report done by the BBC. The seizures of aid ships in one of the busiest supply channels in the world has been under increasing threat by both organized and rouge groups that have demanded their ransoms from both governments and private companies that own the vessels. Though piracy off the Somalia and Kenya coast has been an issue since Somalia unrest that followed the civil war in the war torn lawless country the activity has increased drastically in the past few years with 2008 being a bounty year for the high seas thieve.
| 2005 The MV Feisty Gas, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker and crew of 12 were seized by Somali pirates. A Hong Kong-based company that owns the vessel reportedly paid $315,000 to a representative of the Somali pirates in Mombasa, Kenya, according to a UN report | |
| 2006 Pirates hijacked the India-registered MV Safina al-Birsarat along with its crew of 16 Indians. On January 22, the USS Winston S. Churchill, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, intercepted the vessel. After warning shots were fired, the pirates surrendered and all ten onboard were taken into custody. | |
| 2007 Somali pirates with automatic weapons captured a UN aid ship, carrying 6 Kenyans and 6 Sri Lankans. On February 27, members of the Somali coast guard attempted to take back the ship but failed, and 2 coast guardsmen were killed. The Pirates were in control of the ship for almost 2 months before it was released. | |
| 2007 The Danish-owned cargo ship the MV Danica White was hijacked and maneuvered into Somali waters. On June 3, the USS Carter Hall, a Harpers Ferry-class landing ship dock engaged the pirates, firing machine-gun bursts at the skiffs in tow behind the Danish ship, but failed to stop them. Following 83 days in captivity, the crew of five and the ship were released after the owner, H. Folmer & Co, paid a ransom of 1.5 million | |
| 2007 FV Greko 2 a Greek Fishing vessel was hijacked 110 nautical miles west of Berbera. The Vessel was anchored near Raas Shula, all crew removed from vessel. | |
| 2007 A Japanese chemical tanker, the MV Golden Nori was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. The destroyer USS Porter, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, sank the skiffs used by the pirates, but they still controlled the tanker. US and German naval vessels shadowed the captured vessel and blockaded the port of Bosaso, where the captured tanker was taken. Eventually, after demanding a ransom, the pirates freed the ship and its crew of 21 on December 12 after receiving approximately $1,000,000. | |
| 2007 The MV Al Marjan, owned by Biyat International, was travelling to Mombasa from Dubai when pirates hijacked it 10-20 Nm from Mogadishu | |
| 2007 Pirates attacked the North Korean cargo the MV Dai Hong Dan and captured its bridge. On October 30, the crew regained control of their ship, killing one pirate and capturing six. Three sailors were injured in the fight | |
| 2008 Pirates captured the Danish-owned Russian tugboat the MV Svitzer Korsakov. The ship was held near the town of Eyl in Puntland, until it was released along with its crew of six, on March 18, in exchange for a ransom of 700,000 dollars. | |
| 2008 The MY Le Ponant was seized in the Gulf of Aden. The French-owned luxury yacht had no passengers on board, but there were 30 crew members. The FS Commandant Bouan, a French D’Estienne d’Orves-class aviso, and the HMCS Charlottetown, a Canadian Halifax-class frigate, were dispatched to the yacht. On April 12 the crew and the ship were released, apparently after the owner, CMA CGM, paid a ransom. After the crew was released, French soldiers tracked the pirates, who were then on land. According to the French military a sniper in a helicopter disabled the engine of a car transporting the pirates, while another helicopter landed and captured six pirates and recovered some ransom money. On April 13 the six appeared in a French court in Paris and were charged with, among other things, hostage-taking, hijacking, and theft. | |
| 2008 The FV Playa de Bakio was hijacked about 217 nautical miles off the Somali coast. The vessel is a Basque, Spanish-registered, tuna fishing boat. According to reports, four pirates seized the vessel and its crew of 26, made up of 13 Africans and 13 Spaniards. The boat was slightly damaged in the attack and was anchored off southeast Puntland by the hijackers. On April 26 the ship and its crew were freed and the SPS Méndez Núñez escorted the ship to safety. The Spaniards arrived in Spain on April 30 from the Seychelles, where the African members of the crew remained. It is alleged that a 1.2 million-United States dollar ransom was paid. | |
| 2008 The Al-Khaleej, a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship was seized, along with its 16-member Pakistani crew, by pirates off the coast of Bosaso. The next day, Puntland security forces stormed the ship, capturing seven of the hijackers, killing one, and freeing the ship and its crew. On April 30, a Puntland court sentenced the seven, as well as four collaborators detained after the raid, to life in prison | |
| 2008 The Victoria, a Jordanian-flagged vessel owned by an Emirati company was hijacked 30 nautical miles off the Somali coast . The ship was traveling to the Somali capital of Mogadishu and had a crew of 12 from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Tanzania. On May 23 the ship was released on unspecified terms and continued on its course to Mogadishu. On the 23rd, after the release of the ship, Islamic militants attacked pirates in Hobyo, apparently in response for the hijacking. | |
| 2008 The Amiya Scan, a Dutch vessel manned by four Russians and five Filipinos was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. The ship flies the flag of Antigua and Barbuda and is owned by the Dutch company Reider Shipping. The ship was transporting a damaged oil platform. The vessel was released on June 24 and sailed out of the port of Eyl. Once far enough from the coast, the ship transmitted a mayday signal, as two crew members were ill and the ship had no supplies. | |
| 2008 The Lehmann Timber, a German dry cargo ship, was captured on its maiden trip in the Gulf of Aden. The crew of 9 Burmese, 4 Ukrainians, 1 Russian and 1 Estonian were taken captive. The ship was released 41 days later, on July 8, after a ransom of $750,000 was delivered to the pirates near the town of Eyl. | |
| 2008 Pirates seized the Stella Maris, a Japanese bulk carrier, flying the flag of Panama along with its 21 crew members. The ship was released along with its crew on September 26 after a ransom of US$2 million was paid | |
| 2008 The Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with a 28-member crew was seized when it was delivering plywood to Aden, Yemen. It was released in October after a ransom was paid | |
| 2008 The Bunga Melati Dua, a Malaysian palm oil tanker owned by MISC Berhad, and its crew of 29 Malaysians and ten Filipinos was hijacked by pirates in two speedboats. One Filipino crew member was killed during the boarding. | |
| 2008 The German-owned, Antigua and Barbuda-flagged BBC Trinidad was hijacked. It is released on September 11, along with its 13-person crew consisting of a Slovakian captain, ten Filipinos, and two Russians, after a ransom of US $1.1 million is paid | |
| 2008 The Irene, a Japanese-owned with a crew of one Serb, two Croatians and 16 Filipinos was seized. It was released around the same time as the BBC Trinidad, after a ransom of US$1.5 million was paid. The ship was held near the town of Eyl | |
| 2008 The Iran Deyanat was hijacked and brought to Eyl. The Iranian-owned ship and its crew of 14 Iranians, three Indians, two Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, possibly Croatian, is being held for ransom. Pirates have suffered health problems including hair loss and even death, suggesting that could be carrying chemical munitions or radioactive materials | |
| 2008 The Bunga Melati 5, a Malaysian tanker owned by MISC Berhad was captured while transporting petrochemicals from Singapore to Saudi Arabia. The vessel and crew of its 36 Malaysians and five Filipinos is released on September 27 after a ransom of US$2 million is paid | |
| 2008 The Carré d’As IV, a 50-foot yacht, was hijacked and its two occupants, a French couple, were taken captive. The pirates demanded a million euros in ransom, and the liberation of six Somalis captured during the Le Ponant incident. On September 16, French commando frogmen from the Commando Hubert unit, operating from the frigate Courbet, stormed the yacht as it was being taken to Eyl. The two captives were freed, while one pirate was killed and six captured | |
| 2008 On the Al Mansourah Twelve pirates armed with automatic guns and RPGs in a small high speed craft attacked, boarded and hijacked the ship along with 25 crewmembers. They stole crew’s personal belongings and cash. The ship was ultimately released on 26 September 2009, and it was last reported that the ship was back in international waters on route to Egypt. It is not clear if a ransom was paid, but it appears that the pirates had requested a ransom in the negotiations with the Egyptian intelligence officials | |
| 2008 Pirates boarded and hijacked the 26,589 dwt ship underway and 21 crewmembers, 14 Burmese and 8 Koreans, were held hostage. The ship was released on 16 October 2008 after a ransom was paid by the owner, J&J Trust |
