Somali pirates have seized a 31,000-tonne German grain carrier in the Gulf of Aden but the ship's 17 crew members are unhurt, a Kenyan maritime official said on Saturday. The Malta-flagged MV Patriot is owned by Patriot Schiffahrts and managed by Blumenthal JMK of Hamburg, Germany, said Andrew Mwangura, director of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.
"I hear it was taken early this morning," he told Reuters. "It was hijacked in the eastern end of the Gulf of Aden." Piracy attacks off the eastern African coast have escalated in the past few weeks despite the presence of a flotilla of foreign navy warships in the region. Sea gangs are holding more than 250 hostages and have made millions of dollars through ransoms, driving up insurance costs.
Some shipping lines now opt to use a longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid capture. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it could not confirm the German vessel had been seized. "We've seen the news reports and we're investigating," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.