Saturday, October 09, 2010.
EU Naval Force spokesman Lt. Col Per Klingvall said the FV Feng Guo, a Taiwanese vessel, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden about 250 nautical miles (463 km) from Antisiranana, Madagascar.
According to Klingvall, the fishing vessel has a crew of 14, four of them Chinese, including the Taiwanese captain. Eight are Vietnamese and two are Indonesian.
He said the vessel departed from Port Louis, Mauritius on Oct. 1 and had been confirmed pirated by her owner.
"This is the most southerly vessel to be pirated since the operation began," Klingvall said.
Including the Feng Guo, Somali pirates were currently holding 18 ships with 383 hostages, he said.
Somalia is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important shipping channels.
The country has been plagued by factional fighting between warlords and hasn’t had a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre.
International military officials have vowed to fight Somali pirates who have moved into the waters off the coast of East Africa.
Crews have been successfully repelling more attacks, making it harder for pirates to capture ships and earn multi-million-dollar ransoms. But the pirates have responded by using more violence.
Many ship owners are investing in physical defences like stringing razor wire and adding fire hoses that can hit attackers with streams of high-pressure water.
Source: Xinhua