DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A European Union naval force raced Friday to reach a Malta-flagged tanker held by pirates off the coast of Somalia as officials warned of another attempted approach by the gang.
The seizure of the Hellas Aphrodite, carrying a load of gasoline from India to South Africa, put its crew of 24 mariners at risk and raised fears of further attacks by the pirates operating in the region.
The pirates fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in their assault Thursday, later boarding the Hellas Aphrodite as its crew hid in a locked-down citadel aboard the vessel, officials said. Tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the tanker over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) off the Somali coast.
The EU’s Operation Atalanta, an anti-piracy coalition, said Friday its “assets are close to the incident and are closing distance, ready to take the appropriate action and to respond respectively to this event.”
As the EU rushed to the scene, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center warned of another incident in the same area on Friday. The UKMTO said a small vessel carrying three people, believed to be part of the same pirate group responsible for the seizure of the Hellas Aphrodite, tried to get close to another ship, but the ship outran the pirate vessel.
The attack on the Hellas Aphrodite comes after another vessel, the Cayman Islands-flagged Stolt Sagaland, was targeted Monday in a suspected pirate attack that saw its armed security force and the attackers shooting at each other, the EU force said. Other incidents also have been linked to the same pirate gang, believed to be operating from an Iranian fishing boat it earlier seized.
Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011, when 237 attacks were reported. Somali piracy in the region in 2011 cost the world’s economy some $7 billion, with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.
The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols, a strengthening central government in Somalia, and other efforts.
However, Somali pirate attacks have resumed at a greater pace over the last year, in part due to the insecurity caused by Yemen’s Houthi rebels launching attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
In 2024, there were seven reported incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. So far this year, multiple fishing boats have been seized by Somali pirates. The Hellas Aphrodite represents the first commercial ship seized by pirates off Somalia since May 2024.
Local fisherman Osman Abdi, who lives in Mogadishu, said pirate attacks fueled fear and caused stigma for his nation.
“Since the pirates have committed hijackings today, it creates a problem for us,” Abdi said. “Their actions could be held against us, as many will consider us fishers to be pirates as well, and that instills fear in us.”
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Associated Press writer Omar Faruk in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.
