BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maritime authorities are warning of an increased threat to ships off the coast of Somalia after a cargo ship became the latest vessel to be seized in a suspected act of piracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) raised the threat level in the area to “substantial” as it reported “unauthorised persons” seized the vessel and re-directed it to Somalia’s territorial waters on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least four vessels have been targeted in suspected piracy incidents in the last week including a fishing vessel and oil tanker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until three years ago piracy had almost disappeared in this stretch of the Indian Ocean once notorious for hijackings, but it has since made a comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Due to the increased threat of possible PAG (Pirate Action Group) activity, vessels are advised to transit with caution,” the UKMTO said in a statement, noting that weather is conducive to small boat operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hijacking on Sunday occurred six nautical miles off Garacad, Somalia, the UKMTO said in a statement. No further details were reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UKMTO also issued a warning over a separate hijacking off the coast of Mareeyo, northern Somalia which occurred on 21 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pirates also hijacked an oil tanker, Honour 25, with 17 crew that was sailing near the Somali coast on 22 April, according to multiple security officials speaking to the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the control of the pirates, the vessel, with a crew of 10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan and one from Myanmar, anchored close to the Somali shore between the fishing towns of Xaafun and Bander Beyla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UKMTO reported that a Somali-flagged fishing vessel and oil tanker had been seized on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least two armed people also attempted to board a cargo ship from a small boat on Thursday, the UKMTO reported, although they turned away after the cargo’s crew fired warning shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between 2005 and 2012, pirates off the Horn of Africa raked in between $339m (\u00a3266m) and $413m (\u00a3325) by holding crew members hostage and demanding ransom payments, the World Bank has estimated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: Maritime authorities are warning of an increased threat to ships off the coast of Somalia after a cargo ship became the latest vessel to be seized in a suspected act of piracy. The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) raised the threat level in the area to “substantial” as it reported “unauthorised persons” seized the vessel and re-directed it to Somalia’s territorial waters on Sunday. At least four vessels have been targeted in suspected piracy incidents in the last week including a fishing vessel and oil tanker. Until three years ago piracy had almost disappeared in this stretch of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57065,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57063\/revisions\/57065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}