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Source: Reuters -
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Pirates seized a British-owned ship after taking three vessels
over the weekend, marking a jump in the number of hijackings in the
perilous waters off Somalia this year.
In the first three months of 2009, only eight ships had been
hijacked in the busy Gulf of Aden linking Europe to Asia and the
eastern Indian Ocean off the Somali coast, according to the
International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
Last year, heavily armed gangs from the lawless Horn of Africa
nation hijacked dozens of vessels, taking hundreds of sailors
hostage and earning millions of dollars in ransoms.
Foreign navies rushed warships to the area and reduced the number
of successful attacks.
But there are still near-daily attempts and the pirates have
begun hunting further afield near the Seychelles archipelago.
"A 32,000-tonne bulker was seized early this morning. It is
UK-owned but operated by Italians. The crew is mixed but we are not
sure of their nationalities," said Andrew Mwangura of the
Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme.
The British vessel was named as the Malaspina Castle.
Nikolai Apostolov, head of Bulgaria's Maritime Administration
Agency said 16 Bulgarians were on board.
"I hear they have also captured a Taiwanese fishing vessel near the
Seychelles," he told said.
Over the weekend, pirates seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug and
the Hansa Stavanger, a 20,000-tonne German container vessel,
despite the presence of foreign warships that have been sent to the
region to deter the pirates.
Mwangura said the German container ship was taken 740 km off the
southern Somali port of Kismayu, between the Seychelles and
Kenya.
Germany's Foreign Ministry confirmed the hijack on Monday and said
it had set up a crisis centre.
A spokesman for the Hamburg state prosecutor's office, which is
investigating the incident, said five of the 24 crew members were
German.
French television said the yacht seized at the weekend was the
Tanit and that there was a French couple with a child on
board.
The pirates typically use speed boats launched from mother ships,
which means they can sometimes evade foreign navies patrolling the
busy shipping lanes and strike far out to sea.
They then take captured vessels to remote coastal village bases in
Somalia, where they have usually treated their hostages well in
anticipation of a sizeable ransom payment.
Pirates stunned the shipping industry last year when they seized a
Saudi super tanker loaded with $171 million worth of crude oil.
The Sirius Star and its 25 crew were freed in January after $5.1
million was parachuted onto its deck.
Last September, they also grabbed world headlines by seizing a
Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-era T-72 tanks.
It was released in February, reportedly for a $5.4 million
ransom.
Before the latest spate of hijackings, the IMB said nine vessels
with 153 crew were being held and that 59 pirates had been captured
this year.
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