Today a pirate was killed in a failed hijacking off Somalia. As we all know by now, the Somalian pirates have run rough-shod over cargo ships, cruise ships and any other vessels that have dared to sail the seas off the Somalia coast that they control. Ships that have to navigate those waters have been advised to have security guards on-board in the event of a pirate attack. In this case, that advise paid off. You can see a video report of the story below.
The failed pirate hijacking happened yesterday, March 23, 2010, off the coast of Somalia. The MV Almezaan, a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship, was in route to Mogadishu when it was fired upon by Somalian pirates. The private security team on board the ship returned fire and were able to repel two attempts to hijack the ship. A gun battle ensued during a third attempt to attack the ship and one of the pirate’s was killed.
The European Union (EU) naval force was called for assistance. They boarded three pirate ships that had been involved in the attack on the MV Almezaan and detained six suspected pirates. A seventh pirate was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound.
Somalian pirates have been a plague on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somali for years now. Two cargo ships were seized yesterday, making three attacks on cargo vessels in the area in just one day.
The MV Frigia was seized. It is a Turkish-owned and Maltese-flagged cargo vessel that was in transit from Port Said, Egypt to Kaousichang, Thailand. The MV Frigia had 19 Turkish and two Ukrainian crew members on board at the time it was hijacked in the Indian Ocean yesterday.
The MV Talca is a Virgin Island-owned and Bermuda-flagged cargo vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden yesterday. It was captured about 180 miles south of Mazera off the coast of Oman. The MV Talca was in route from Sokhna, Egypt to Busheir, Iran with 23 crew members from Sri Lanka, one from the Philippines and one from Syria.
The pirate killed in a failed hijacking off Somalia is the first of its kind. Predictably, it has raised controversy as to who has jurisdiction in the waters off the coast of Somalia, whether or not the private security teams are legal, what kinds of individuals would take those jobs and how they are being regulated and overseen.
I have one thought on the controversy. When someone takes the guns away from the lawless Somalians, regulates and sets up oversight of their activities, then we’ll get more concerned about merchant vessels’ efforts to protect themselves. Seriously!
