GAROWE, Somalia, July 23 (Reuters) – A merchant ship hijacked in Yemeni waters in the Gulf of Aden last week is now being held by Somali pirates, two residents of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region told Reuters on Thursday. • The ship, the MT Asana, is a Tanzanian-flagged fuel and chemical tanker. • One of the […]
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Merchant ship hijacked off Yemen now held by Somali pirates, residents say
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GAROWE, Somalia, July 23 (Reuters) – A merchant ship hijacked in Yemeni waters in the Gulf of Aden last week is now being held by Somali pirates, two residents of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region told Reuters on Thursday.
• The ship, the MT Asana, is a Tanzanian-flagged fuel and chemical tanker.
• One of the residents who spoke to Reuters described himself as a former pirate. He said there were 20 crew members on board the MT Asana, including eight from Germany and 10 from the Philippines.
• Germany’s foreign ministry said it did not comment on abductions of German nationals overseas as a matter of principle.
• The other resident of Caluula in Puntland saw pirates transporting food to the hijacked ship.
• United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said last week that a vessel boarded by unauthorised personnel in the Gulf of Aden had been manoeuvred into Somali waters, classifying it as a hijack.
• Somali pirates caused havoc in the waters off the Horn of Africa nation’s long coastline between 2008 and 2018. After a lull, pirate activity started to pick up again in late 2023.
(Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Miranda Murray in BerlinAdditional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu and Writing by Elias Biryabarema and Ludwig BurgerEditing by Alexander Winning and Kevin Liffey)