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Somali pirates on Tuesday seized a ship carrying coal to the United Arab Emirates, stepping up attacks while the focus of international naval forces has turned to Yemen’s Houthis.
The capture of the bulk carrier Abdullah off the Somali coast is the first such incident since December, underlining what the industry sees as a growing risk for commercial shipping.
The attack follows a warning in an interview last month by the head of the International Maritime Organization, the UN body for maritime affairs, over the threat of a resurgence in piracy.
There have been widespread concerns in shipping that the shift in focus of naval forces towards countering Houthi rebel attacks on commercial vessels would give space for Somali pirates to increase activity.
Somali pirates last commandeered a ship on December 14 when a group hijacked the Bulgarian-owned bulk carrier Ruen. That vessel remains off Somalia. Pirates subsequently briefly seized another ship, the Lila Norfolk, on January 4 before the Indian Navy drove the raiders off the ship.
The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on Tuesday reported that a vessel had been boarded by “multiple persons” from two craft, one large and one small, 600 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. “Unauthorised persons now control the vessel,” it said.
Ambrey, a UK maritime security company, reported that the vessel seized was flying the Bangladesh flag. Vessel-tracking site Marine Traffic showed that the Abdullah, the only Bangladesh-flagged vessel in the area, had changed course abruptly towards the coast of Somalia.
UKMTO later added that there were 22 armed people on board — an unusually large number for a pirate attack — but that the crew were unharmed.
Bangladeshi media outlets reported the ship had 23 crew members. The vessel is managed by SR Shipping, part of a steelmaking company called the Kabir group. The company did not immediately respond to questions.
UKMTO warned in January there were two “pirate action groups” waiting around the area where the Abdullah was boarded.
Such groups consist of a hijacked dhow — a traditional ship in the region — which pirates use as a floating base for small attack boats.
Martin Kelly, senior Middle East analyst at maritime risk consultancy EOS Risk Group, said a pirate action group had been seen to leave the coast of Somalia on March 3.
Kelly pointed out the Indian Navy had a strong presence in the region of the attack and it was possible one of its ships would again intervene to rescue the Abdullah. “It’s just a case of how dangerous those boarding and rescue operations will be thereafter,” he said.
Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the IMO, in February warned in a Financial Times interview that shipping companies should return to observing the high security standards they followed when Somali piracy was at its peak 15 years ago. “They need to be more in line with how they were back in 2008 to 2012 off Somalia,” he said.
Somali pirates launched hundreds of attacks a year on commercial ships when the problem was at its worst and scores of vessels were held until ransoms were paid.
The issue was mostly resolved by a mixture of naval action, a reduction of onshore instability and shipowners’ employment of armed security guards.
Some local media reports have suggested the issue has re-emerged partly because of the anger of fishing crews in Puntland, on Somalia’s coast, with the province’s government.
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