SHIP HIJACK WITH MALAYSIAKINI: Malaysia versus Kenya

Remember

Hijack incidents? The Gulf is so wide, and billions of dollar flow in and out. Poverty and government failure leads to cronic problem in countries like Somalia. The billion of dollars flowing within their reach will not go unnoticed. Hijacks are almost daily occurance, so must so that countries guard their ships with naval strength.

2. Malaysia caught international attention when they manage to ward off intruders out of hijack attempts, but somehow play it down and cool about it. But Kenyans are playing it out in the open!

Kenyans watch the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, escorted by the Kenya navy, as it arrives at the port of Mombasa, 500 km (310 miles) from the capital Nairobi, on Thursday. Photo/REUTERS

By NATION TeamPosted Thursday, February 12 2009 at 21:18

Cheering crowds jammed Mama Ngina Gardens at Kenya's coastal town of Mombasa as mv Faina sailed to the port with its military hardware, a week after it was released by pirates.

The Ukrainian ship which had been held for five months was released on Thursday last week after the owners paid a $3.5 million (Sh275 million) ransom.

At exactly 3.59pm, the ship, which had 33 Soviet made T-72 tanks and an assortment of military equipment, anchored to safety at the port of Mombasa. Prior to anchoring, smoke billowed from the chimney of the ship.

Pushed to berth

The vessel was pushed to the berth by tug boats which had received it at the entrance of the channel to the port off Mama Ngina Drive.

People started flocking into the park as early as 11am, anxious to catch a glimpse of the vessel whose cargo generated a lot of interest both locally and abroad.

The equipment was said to belong to the Government of Southern Sudan which is currently not allowed to import weapons by the United Nations.

But in an earlier interview on Thursday at the Kenya Ports Authority, Government spokesman Alfred Mutua maintained that the equipment belongs to the Kenya military. Also present were Defence assistant minister David Musila, military spokesperson Bogita Ongeri and senior military and police officers.

There was tight security at the berth as personnel from the Kenya Army, Navy Police and Kenya Ports Authority cordoned off the area.

Block journalists

At one point, military officers attempted to block Nation journalists who were rushing from their offices to transmit the advance copy of the story.

Some crew members, dressed in orange overalls, could be seen anchored the ship with the help of officers of the ports authority. Waiting to inspect the goods were Kenya Revenue Authority personnel.

Aboard the ship was KPA harbour master Twalib Khamis, who guided the ship until it anchored to safety. Doctors boarded mv Faina to carry out inspections and diagnosis on its crew. The body of the captain of the ship who died a few days after the vessel was hijacked, was believed to be still on board.

A battery of local and international journalists who have been camping at the park for nearly a week captured the moment they had been waiting for as the vessel slowly shored into the port. Business came to a standstill at Likoni Channel as crowds watched the vessel sail into the safety of Kilindini harbour.

Military hardware

In Nairobi, Chief of General Staff Jeremiah Kianga said Kenya was happy to finally receive the military hardware including the 33 battle tanks that had been held by pirates for four and half months.

“The hardware belongs to Kenya. We tendered for them and bought the best at a good price. It cost us quite a substantial amount of money,” Gen Kianga said.

It was hijacked by more than 50 pirates off the coast of Somalia on September 25, 2008. The Chief of General Staff was speaking at Kenya Rapid Deployment Capacity base at Embakasi, Nairobi.

Crowd cheers Ukrainian ship
Daily Nation




beritadarigunung

Somali Pirates Hijack Yemeni Ship in Gulf of Aden

By VOA News
25 November 2008

A maritime official says Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.

Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program, identified the vessel Tuesday as the MV Amani.

It was not immediately clear when the ship was hijacked.

Somali pirates have hijacked nearly 40 ships this year.

In Malaysia Monday, an international association of tanker owners called for a military blockade along the coast of Somalia. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance is not considering such a move.

NATO is among the world powers that have sent ships to patrol the waters off Somalia. Somali pirates are wreaking havoc in shipping lanes near the country.

The Somali government, which is threatened by an Islamist insurgency, lacks the power to stop the attacks.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

Somali Pirates Hijack Yemeni Ship in Gulf of Aden
Voice of America




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SOMALI HIJACK: Islamic fighters vow to rescue hijacked Saudi tanker

Somali militants vowed to rescue a Saudi supertanker that was hijacked by pirates a week ago, according to residents of a town where the pirates are believed to be based.

The supertanker Sirius Star is loaded with 2 million barrels of oil believed to be valued at $100 million.

Five armored vehicles loaded with al-Shabab fighters arrived in the central Somali coastal town of Harardhere this weekend, near where pirates are holding the massive oil tanker Sirius Star, said Ahmed Mohamed, a resident of the town.

The fighters told residents they would battle the pirates because the tanker, that is loaded with 2 million barrels of oil, is owned by a Muslim country and should not have been taken, Mohamed said.

Another resident, Hassan Nor, suggested that the al-Shabab fighters' motive was to share in the multi-million dollar ransom the pirates have demanded from the supertanker's owner.

The al-Shabab militia is an offshoot of an Islamic party that ruled much of Somalia in the second half of 2006 and aims to impose Islamic sharia law in Somalia. It was forced from power by Ethiopian troops but continues to fight for control.

Nor said he could see the Sirius Star anchored offshore from his town.

"The armed pirates have climbed on the top of the ship," Nor said. "They vowed that they will defend any attackers from the ship."

Don't Miss

• Pirates release tanker hijacked in September

The owners of the Sirius Star, carrying a cargo valued at $100 million when it was hijacked off the coast of Kenya, are currently involved in negotiations.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister acknowledged earlier this week the difficult choice faced by the vessel's owners.

"We do not like to negotiate with either terrorists or hijackers, but the owners of the tanker are the owners of the tanker and they are the final arbiters of what happens there," said Prince Saud Al-Faisal.

More than $150 million has been paid to pirates around the Horn of Africa over the past 12 months, Kenya's foreign minister said Friday.

The money is encouraging them to continue and become more brazen in their attacks, Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told a news conference in the Kenyan capital.



Islamic fighters vow to rescue hijacked Saudi tanker
CNN International

Somali pirates hijack Saudi tanker loaded with oil

By BARBARA SURK and TAREK EL-TABLAWY – 1 hour ago

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In a dramatic escalation of high seas crime, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi supertanker loaded with crude hundreds of miles off the coast of East Africa — defeating the security web of warships trying to protect vital shipping lanes.

The takeover demonstrates the bandits' heightened ambitions and capabilities: Never before have they seized such a giant ship so far out to sea. Maritime experts warned the broad daylight attack, reported by the U.S. Navy on Monday, was an alarming sign of the difficulty of patrolling a vast stretch of ocean key to oil and other cargo traffic.

The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized at about 10 a.m. Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the Navy said. The area lies far south of the zone where warships have increased their patrols this year in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest channels in the world, leading to and from the Suez Canal, and the scene of most past attacks.

The massive supertanker would seem to present a daunting target for the pirates, who usually operate in small speedboats. At 1,080 feet, it is the length of an aircraft carrier and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.

But experts said its crew may have felt a false sense of security so far from shore, even though pirates have repeatedly demonstrated their skill in taking down big prizes.

Details of Saturday's attack were not known, but in past seizures, pirates have used ropes and ladders to climb the hull — and on large ships, the crew often doesn't notice them until it's too late. On the Sirius Star, the attackers likely would have had to scale about 30 feet from the water to the deck.

It was not clear if the Sirius Star had any armed security on board. In past attacks, alert crews have fended off pirates trying to climb the sides, using water hoses to knock them away. But the pirates have struck back: In April, they fired a rocket-propelled grenade that punched a hole in the side of a Japanese oil tanker, spewing oil into the sea, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it.

Pirates have been spreading their attacks southward into a vast area of the Indian Ocean that is extremely difficult and costly to patrol, maritime security experts said.

"It had been slightly easier to get it under control in the Gulf of Aden because it is a comparatively smaller area of water which has to be patrolled, But this is huge," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau.

The pirates were taking the captured tanker and crew to anchor off the Somali port of Eyl, said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet. The port on Somalia's northeastern coast has become a pirate haven and a number of ships are already being held there as pirates negotiate ransoms.

Christensen said the Sirius Star was carrying crude, but he could not say how much. Fully loaded, the ship's cargo would be worth about $100 million. But the pirates would have no way of selling crude and no way to refine it in Somalia. Instead, they were likely to demand a ransom, as they have in the past.

"It's the largest ship we've seen hijacked and one attacked farthest out on the sea," Christensen said. The capturing of the oil tanker represents a "fundamental shift in the ability of pirates to be able to attack merchant vessels."

The Sirius Star, which was commissioned in March and is owned by the Saudi oil company Aramco, is classed as a Very Large Crude Carrier, the second-largest classification. It was sailing under a Liberian flag and its crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. A British Foreign Office spokesman said there were at least two British nationals on board.

An operator with Aramco said there was no one at the company to comment after business hours. Calls went unanswered at Vela International, the Dubai-based marine company that operated the ship for Aramco. Christensen said he had no details on the ship's port of origin and destination.

Pirate attacks off Somalia have surged more than 75 percent this year, hitting dozens of freighters, tankers, yachts and fishing vessels. The pirates raised international alarm bells in September when they seized a Ukrainian freighter, the Faina, carrying a cargo of battle tanks and other weapons. The Faina and its 20-member crew are still being held off Somalia, watched by warships to prevent the removal of its cargo.

With most attacks ending with million-dollar payouts, piracy is considered the biggest moneymaker in Somalia, a country that has had no stable government for decades. A report last month by the London-based think tank Chatham House said pirates raked in up to $30 million in ransoms this year alone.

The pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades. Far out to sea, their speedboats operate from larger motherships.

"Pirates are becoming very strong and very rich, and they are expanding into other parts of the (Indian) Ocean beyond the Gulf of Aden," said Nour Mohammed Saeed, a former fisheries minister in the Puntland region of northern Somalia. "They are getting a lot of money and they know that they can make more."

The seizure of the Faina and its cargo of weapons prompted a reinforcement of warships patrolling the waters off Somalia. Along with a Russian frigate and Indian vessels, a NATO flotilla of seven ships is in the Gulf of Aden to help the U.S. 5th Fleet in anti-piracy patrols and to escort cargo vessels. The 5th Fleet said it has repelled about two dozen pirate attacks since Aug. 22 in the gulf.

Another multinational fleet currently led by the Dutch has carved out a protected lane through the Gulf of Aden, through which 20,000 tankers, freighters and merchant vessels transit every year, entering and exiting the Suez Canal.

But other ships — including ones too big for the canal like the Sirius Star — traverse the waters off East Africa to circle the continent by the Cape of Good Hope.

"There will never be enough warships," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd. "The whole area is 2.5 million square miles ... The coalition have to act preemptively and be one step ahead of the pirates."

The EU is planning anti-piracy patrols off Somalia beginning next month — but they won't be assigned to watch supertankers, which aren't considered "vulnerable" vessels, a French government official said Monday.

The patrols, approved at an EU meeting last week, would be assigned to protect smaller ships deemed at risk, the official said.

Barbara Surk reported from Dubai, Tarek el-Tablawy from Cairo, Egypt. AP writers Katharine Houreld, Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, and Jason Keyser in Cairo contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Somali pirates hijack Saudi tanker loaded with oil
The Associated Press