Somali pirates abandoned the Emirati dhow carrying lemons at sea after failing to use it to attack other ships, security sources in Somalia’s Puntland state told AFP.
There is currently no information on the fate of the crew of the Fahad-4, which set out from Mogadishu in late April with a cargo of citrus before being attacked by a gang of 11 pirates.
The Joint Maritime Information Center in early May raised the piracy threat level to “severe,” the second-highest level, following a recent series of similar hijackings.
JMIC is managed by a vast coalition of 47 countries deployed in the northern Indian Ocean to combat the long-term piracy threat in the Horn of Africa. The dhow was attacked about 10 nautical miles off the northeastern Somali coastal town of Dinoda, according to the group.
Puntland security officials told AFP that the pirate gang set out from the area near the port of Galacad, about 600 kilometers north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
One of the sources told AFP that after taking control of the dhow, the pirates “used the hijacked ship as a mother ship to sail in Somali waters and try to attack other ships”.
Another official told AFP that the pirates were then forced to abandon ship on May 4 because “they were low on supplies and unable to attack other ships due to increased alert on ships sailing through Somali waters in recent weeks”.
Other ships hijacked in recent weeks remain in the hands of pirates.
According to maritime monitors, pirates hijacked the Baba-flagged Honor 25 oil tanker near Puntland on April 21.
A few days later, on 26 April, the M/V Sward, waving a Syrian pennant, fell victim further off the Somali coast.
Across the Gulf of Aden, pirates took control of the Togo-flagged oil tanker Eureka off the coast of Yemen and then sailed the vessel toward the coast of Somalia.
In a recent advisory, the Indian Ocean Maritime Security Center, which is linked to European navies based in the Horn of Africa, said it was “almost certainly” Fahad-4 involved in an aborted attack on the Maltese tanker M/V Minerva Pisces on 28 April.
In that incident, a dhow approached the tanker, but those preparing to board the ship returned only when security teams showed up with weapons.
Somali authorities have not responded to requests for comment on Fahad-4.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
