Truemors
Pirates in war with France already, reach out to defend their terretory
NAIROBI: Pirates seized another ship in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast, a maritime official said yesterday.
Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme said the Hong Kong-flagged Great Creation was hijacked on Wednesday.
The Great Creation was travelling to India from Tunisia with 24 Chinese and a Sri Lankan on board when it was attacked.
Mwangura said the ship was being taken to Eyl, a pirate lair in Somalia's northern breakaway state of Puntland.
The pirates have shifted operations to the Indian Ocean in southern Somalia from the Gulf of Aden due to the presence of navy ships, according to Mwangura.
Yesterday, hijackers also took a Maltese-flagged Greek ship Centauri with a crew of 25 Filipinos some 320km south of Mogadishu, in the Indian Ocean. It was carrying 17,000 tonnes of bulk salt.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, 55 ships had been attacked off the coast of Somalia since January and 11 were still being held for ransom when news of the latest attack was reported.
Somalia's long and largely unpatrolled coastline is infested with pirates, making the Gulf of Aden and neighbouring areas in the Indian Ocean among the most dangerous waters in the world
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