{"id":2125,"date":"2017-03-14T23:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T23:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/?p=2125"},"modified":"2017-07-01T23:04:25","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T23:04:25","slug":"pirates-demand-ransom-for-oil-tanker-captured-off-coast-of-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/pirates-demand-ransom-for-oil-tanker-captured-off-coast-of-somalia\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates demand ransom for oil tanker captured off coast of Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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European Union anti-piracy force confirms that armed men are onboard Comoros-flagged Aris 13 in first such seizure since 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Soma<\/a>lia<\/a> and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

An EU naval force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship\u2019s master, who confirmed that armed men were onboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hijacking was the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012. It came as a surprise to the global shipping industry as patrols by the navies of Nato countries, as well as China, India and Iran, had suppressed Somali pirate hijackings for several years.<\/p>\n

However, the United Nations warned in October that the situation was fragile and that Somali pirates \u201cpossess the intent and capability to resume attacks\u201d. One expert said some in the region had let down their guard as the situation calmed. Nato ended its anti-piracy mission off Somalia in December.<\/p>\n

A Somali pirate who said he was in touch with the armed men onboard the tanker said the amount of ransom to demand had not yet been decided.<\/p>\n

Bile Hussein told the Associated Press that the armed men have locked most of crew in one room and cut off communication lines. \u201cTheir main concern now is a possible rescue attempt, so that\u2019s why all communications were cut off in the afternoon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Aris 13, manned by eight Sri Lankan sailors, was carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia\u2019s capital, Mogadishu, when it was approached by men in two skiffs, said John Steed of Oceans Beyond Piracy<\/a>. The EU statement says the ship\u2019s master issued a mayday alert.<\/p>\n

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A Somali fisherman casts his nets at dusk on the beach in the former pirate village of Eyl, in Somalia\u2019s semiautonomous state of Puntland . Photograph: Ben Curtis\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

An official in Somalia\u2019s semiautonomous state of Puntland said over two dozen men boarded the ship off the country\u2019s northern coast, an area known to be used by weapons smugglers and members of the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabaab. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.<\/p>\n

The ship was anchored on Tuesday off the town of Alula, said Salad Nur, a local elder. \u201cThe ship is on the coast now and more armed men boarded the ship,\u201d he told the AP by phone.<\/p>\n

An official based in the Middle East with knowledge of the incident told the AP that the vessel\u2019s captain reported to the company it had been approached by two skiffs and that one had armed personnel on board. \u201cThe ship changed course quite soon after that report and is now anchored.\u201d The official also spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The EU naval force said it had passed information to the ship\u2019s owners and an investigation was under way.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement it was in touch with shipping agents and officials abroad for more information to help ensure the crew\u2019s safety and welfare.<\/p>\n

A UN shipping database shows the Aris 13 is owned by a company called Armi Shipping SA, whose address is listed as care of Aurora Ship Management FZE, a company based in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. Calls and emails to Aurora went unanswered.<\/p>\n

Australian government records from 2014 list the ship\u2019s owner as Flair Shipping Trading FZE in the UAE. Argyrios Karagiannis, the managing director of Flair Shipping, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

An address listed for Flair Shipping in Dubai\u2019s high-rise neighbourhood of Jumeirah Lake Towers was for a company called Flair Oil Trading DMCC. A woman who answered the door on Tuesday told an AP reporter the firm wasn\u2019t connected to the ship and directed him to another office.<\/p>\n

When no one answered the door at that office, the AP reporter returned to find Karagiannis entering the office of Flair Oil Trading DMCC. \u201cWe will not be releasing any information,\u201d Karagiannis said before shutting the door.<\/p>\n

The incident involving the Aris 13 represents the first commercial pirate attack off Somalia since 2012, Steed said. \u201cThe pirates never went away, they were just doing other forms of crime and if any of the measures reduce (which they have, or ships take risks) the pirates are poised to exploit the weakness,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

Somali pirates usually hijack ships and crew for ransom. They don\u2019t normally kill hostages unless they come under attack.<\/p>\n

Piracy off Somalia\u2019s coast was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near the country, whose weak central government has been trying to assert itself after a quarter of a century of conflict. In that time, concerns about piracy off Africa\u2019s coast have largely shifted to the Gulf of Guinea.<\/p>\n

But frustrations have been rising among local fishermen, including former pirates, at what they say are foreign fishermen illegally fishing in local waters.<\/p>\n

Nur, the local elder, told the AP that young fishermen including former pirates have hijacked the ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been sailing through the ocean in search for a foreign ship to hijack since yesterday morning and found this ship and boarded it,\u201d he said. \u201cForeign fishermen destroyed their livelihoods and deprived them of proper fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2192\u00a0Source<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

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The Aris 13 oil tanker, pictured here in Australia, which was hijacked by pirates on Monday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,156,158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","category-somalia","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2128,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125\/revisions\/2128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}