Somali pirates on Thursday seized a Singapore-flagged container ship in the Indian Ocean, as dropping winds near the Seychelles allowed the hijacking season to get into full swing. "The Singapore flagged and owned boxship Kota Wajar was seized around 300 nautical miles north the Seychelles," said Andrew Mwangura, who heads the Kenyan chapter of East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.
He said the ship had 21 crew members and was heading to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. A maritime source in the area, who did not wish to be identified, said that the attack took place early Thursday, 24 nautical miles from the site of recent attacks on French tuna-fishing boats.
He also said that the attack was only 180 nautical miles from the Seychelles, inside the archipelago's exclusive economic zone. The maritime security centre of the European Union, which has an anti-piracy naval force patrolling waters affected by Somali piracy, also confirmed the hijacking.
"During the early morning of October 15, 2009, a Singapore-flagged container ship KOTA WAJAR was hijacked in the Indian Ocean by pirates some 300 nautical miles north of the Seychelles," a statement said. "An EU NAVFOR maritime patrol aircraft was tasked to investigate the situation," it said, without providing further details.
"There are 21 crew on board the vessel, of whom two are Singapore permanent residents," confirmed a statement from Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority, which added that the authority "is currently working with the ship owner and relevant agencies."
The latest hijacking brings to at least six the number of vessels in the hands of Somali pirates. The others include a Spanish trawler, a Taiwanese fishing vessel and Ukrainian, German and Turkish freighters. More than 110 crew members are currently being held hostage.
According to non-governmental observers Ecoterra International, at least 174 attacks have been carried out by Somali pirates since the start of 2009 alone, 49 of them successful hijackings. A flotilla of foreign warships has since last year been patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest maritime trade routes on the globe, prompting pirates to hunt down their prey far out in the Indian Ocean.
Experts had warned in recent days that dropping winds near the Seychelles had attracted pirates, who generally launch attacks from so-called "mother ships" with tiny skiffs. Pirates focus most of their attacks on transitional weather periods between monsoons when the seas are quiet enough for them to operate. This year's summer season came later than last year.
"The winds in that area actually started dropping last Saturday. Since Monday, it's been flat calm in that part of the Somali basin," said Nick Davis, of private security firm Gulf of Aden Group Transits. He said that as a result of foreign naval presence in the Gulf of Aden, the pirate groups had moved their assets to the Indian Ocean, a huge area much more difficult to patrol.
"I think they are going to go as far as 62 degrees east (longitude - about half way between the Seychelles and the Maldives), the foreign forces will spread so far wide they're going to be ineffective again," Davis argued. "Coalition countries are going to say at one point that it's too expensive. It has got to fall back on the industry... We should be concentrating on providing crew safety and not on a short-term show of force," he said.
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