Pirates seize Greek tanker and 19 crew off Somalia coast

Pirates have seized a Greek chemical tanker with 19 crew members off Somalia’s coast, continuing an audacious string of hijackings near the war-torn African country, an international anti-piracy watchdog said today.

The tanker, carrying refined petroleum from Europe to the Middle East, was ambushed on Friday in the Gulf of Aden, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting centre based in Malaysia.

He said the pirates chased and fired at the ship before boarding it.

The incident follows the hijacking on Thursday of a Ukrainian cargo ship en route to Kenya with 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts.

The hijacking brings the number of attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia to 62 this year, or more than one every week. A total of 26 ships were hijacked, and 15 remain in the hands of the pirates along with 300 crew members.

Most pirate attacks occur in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to the north of the African country. But recently pirates have been targeting Indian Ocean waters off eastern Somalia.

Mr Choong said the United Nations and the international community should take action to prevent further attacks.

The US Naval Central Command has set up a security corridor patrolled by an international coalition of warships. However, pirate attacks remain prevalent off Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991.

Some 20,000 vessels pass through the Gulf of Aden every year while travelling between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.