By Dawan Africa - Reporter
Garowe(Mogadishu24)-Puntland State officials on Monday confirmed that suspected pirates hijacked unidentified ship in the Somali coast Friday, the attack seems to be another wave of piracy activities in the region again.
Puntland State Minister for Ports and Crimes against Maritime, Ahmed Yasin Salah told reporters that about 16 to 17 armed gunmen suspected to be pirates carried out the attack on ship which was about 12 miles into the Somali sea, saying this is the second such activity to happen in the region in three weeks’ period.
“We confirm that the Piracy crime activity happened as suspected men to be pirates the committed it, Puntland State is pursuing them as it used to do, crash and control the coast. there are joint operations at moment, the ship is moving to Hafun beach area while Indian navy and others from Gulf are heading to the ship zone to take action. We will arrest these pirates”, Salah said.
He said that the ship caries agricultural product fertilizers, but he did not provide more details about the ship and who belongs to it so far, saying they’re gathering all information related to it and rescue efforts.
This piracy activity happens three after a fishing boat belonging to Iran was hijacked by a group of men suspected to be pirates off the coast of Qandala district in Bari region, northeast Somalia’s Puntland State.
In November this year, pirates hijacked a Yemeni boat with 16 Iranian workers and a Somali guard in the coastal district of Eyl in the Nugal region, Puntland State of Somalia.
In that incident, the boat managers reported that they had contacted the armed group responsible for the kidnapping, who demanded $400,000 in ransom to release the boat and its staff.
According to the officials, the pirated attempted to hijack an Israeli owned ship two weeks earlier.
