Freighter hijacked off Somalia
Indian warship gives chase
January 5, 2024, 1:18 p.m
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Pirates hijack a cargo ship off the Somali coast – the crew of at least 15 people from India hole up. Now the Indian Navy is sending a destroyer to the region.
The Indian Navy has sent a warship to a merchant vessel off the coast of Somalia that has been hijacked by pirates. The Navy said it was supposed to monitor the situation and ensure the safety of the crew. It was said that contact could be made with the crew. There are at least 15 Indian crew members on board the “MV Lila Norfolk”, which sails under the Liberian flag, local news agency ANI reported, citing military personnel.
The British Maritime Observatory (UKTMO) said on Thursday that five to six armed people had boarded the ship about 460 nautical miles east of the Somali town of Eyl. According to the captain, the crew barricaded themselves in the ship’s citadel.
The Indian Navy said it had been notified by the UKMTO. The Navy only sent warships into the Arabian Sea in December after a suspected drone attack. The warship sent to the cargo ship is the destroyer “INS Chennai”.
Freighter hijacked off Somalia in December
The coast off the crisis state of Somalia was a hotspot for pirate attacks a few years ago. As a result of the EU mission “Atalanta”, which has been running since 2008 to combat piracy there, attacks have decreased significantly. According to the IMB Piracy Reporting Center, there was another attack on December 14th in which a freighter was hijacked and driven to Somalia.
Somalia is located in the Horn of Africa on the other side of the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea to prevent them from passing through to Israel. The Red Sea is considered one of the most important shipping routes for world trade because it connects the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal in Egypt.