| Somalia – Pirates of the Aden |
While the trilogy of the Hollywood blockbuster `Pirates of the Caribbean` is already complete, their counterparts in Somalia have just begun hitting top of the charts, with a number of hijackings every other week. The problem of piracy in the Gulf of Aden was nothing new, but it picked up in the middle of 2008. And in November, Somali pirates netted a spectacular catch – Saudi supertanker Sirius Star carrying some two million barrels of oil, worth about USD 100 million. It was the first time that Somali pirates had seized an oil tanker, which has still not been freed.
Even the US Navy described it as an "unprecedented" attack, which also highlighted the wide reach of the `fearless` pirates – the vessel was seized about 480 miles off the coast of Somalia.
The waters off the coast of Somalia – a troubled nation – have now become the most dangerous in the world, recording a third of the world`s pirate attacks. So far this year, the pirates – heavily armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s – have carried out 92 attacks and managed to hijack 36 vessels, including the Saudi supertanker and Ukrainian ship MV Faina carrying battle tanks.
On November 16, MT Stolt Valor, a cargo ship owned by a Japanese company and with 18 Indian sailors on board, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in September, was released after the payment of an undisclosed amount of ransom.
To tackle the menace, warships from at least nine countries, including India, are now stationed in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. But many believe this has only aggravated the problem. Somali pirates hijacked Sirius Star hundreds of miles away from Somalia. The pirates are now operating in a region that encompasses over 25% of the Indian Ocean, which is next to impossible to monitor.
But there have been successes too in tackling the pirates. French commandos freed their captive citizens from the hands of the `pirates` earlier this year. The British Navy shot dead at least two pirates after they attempted to board a ship.
The Indian Navy in December captured 23 Somali and Yemeni pirates who attempted to hijack MV Gibe, a ship flying under the Ethiopian flag, in the Gulf of Aden. In November too, the Indian Navy had sunk a pirate "mother vessel" off Somalia, but it later turned out to be a Thai fishing trawler that had been seized by pirates off Yemen. In another operation, INS Tabar, while patrolling in the Gulf of Aden waters, thwarted an attempt by pirates to capture an Indian merchant vessel the same month.
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