Pirates demand $25m ransom for oil tanker

Somali pirates who hijacked Saudi oil super-tanker Sirius Star yesterday demanded $25 million (€19.9m) in ransom and set a 10-day deadline amid mounting calls for tougher action on sea bandits.

“We are demanding 25 million dollars from the Saudi owners of the tanker. We do not want long-term discussions to resolve the matter,” a pirate who identified himself as Mohamed Said said from the ship, now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere.

“The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous,” Said added.

In a sign of growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau (IBM) as “out of control”, Russia announced it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia.

Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, the top commander of the Russian navy said a number of ships will head to the region,

“This is needed because of the situation that has developed in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have sharply increased their activities,” Vysotsky said.

Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has meanwhile called for an international ground military operation to combat piracy in the region.

“It is up to the European Union, NATO and others to launch a coastal land operation to eliminate the pirates,” Rogozin said, insisting “naval action alone will not be enough to liquidate the piracy threat”.

African Union commission chief Jean Ping said the surge in piracy was a result of worsening security in Somalia. He called for “stronger and more co-ordinated efforts”, to return stability to Somalia, “including a rapid deployment of a United Nations peace force”.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal said the ship’s owners are in talks with the pirates, but the company that operates the vessel has remained tight-lipped about the claims of negotiations.

Seized at the weekend in the Indian Ocean, about 800 kilometres off the coast of Kenya, the ship became the largest to be taken by Somali pirates and the attack was the furthest away from Somalia.

The super-tanker was loaded to capacity with two million barrels of oil when it was seized along with its crew of 25 — 19 from the Philippines, two from Britain, two from Poland, one Croatian and one Saudi.

The Indian frigate INS Tabar, one of dozens of warships from several countries protecting commercial shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, sank a Somali pirate ship late on Tuesday after coming under fire, a spokesman said.

Pirates use mother ships, generally hijacked trawlers or deep-sea dhows, to tow speedboats from which they launch their attacks with grapnel hooks tied to rope ladders before neutralising the crews at gunpoint.