Irishman on board boat captured by pirates

AN IRISH marine engineer is among the multinational crew of a Danish-owned tug boat that has been captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the incident and was monitoring the situation closely.

The identity of the Irish crewman has not been revealed.

All crew members on the Svitzer Korsakov, which includes a British captain and four Russians, were understood to be unharmed, said Pat Adamson, a London-based spokesman for the Danish ship owner, Svitzer.

The tug boat was anchored in Somali waters on Monday, three days after it was hijacked off the coast of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northeast Somalia, he said.

Mr Adamson said his company was in contact with the pirates and crew, and it appeared the crew was well.

“The morale is good. They’re getting sleep, they’re getting food,” he said.

Abdulahi Sa’id Awyusuf, chief of the coastal village of Eyl, said pirates holding the tug contacted officials in the town, demanding thousands of US dollars in ransom.

Puntland-based SBC radio broadcast an interview with a man identified only as a spokesman for the pirates who said the crew was well and everyone would be released once the ransom was paid. He said the pirates also seized an Omani fishing vessel and would release it too when the ransom was paid.

Mr Adamson declined to give any details on the negotiations, citing safety concerns for the crew. He said he did not know how many pirates were aboard, or what weapons they were carrying. “I would assume they’re armed,” he said.

The US navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. In one incident last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a tanker.

Piracy is increasingly common along Somalia’s 3,000km coast, which is the longest in Africa and near key shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.

Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year.

The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose by 10% in 2007, marking the first increase in three years.

Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy and the transitional government formed in 2004 with UN help has struggled to assert control.