Combating Piracy Forum

• Main Forums
• Special Interest Forums
• Support Forums

1. Jim Nicoll - Member

   MY COMMENT:
   Only a few details are available at present but it seems certain that the vessel has been hijacked.

   Somalia Report By JD 02/19/2012

   On Thursday, Somali pirates hijacked the Panama flagged Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro/Ro) vessel now identified as the MV Leila, with 24 crew members on board, according to the The Maritime Security Centre Horn of Africa (MSCHOA). Initial reports suggested that the vessel was a German-owned oil tanker.

   Somalia Report received this report several days ago, but had been awaiting confirmation of the incident.

   Pirate sources who spoke to Somalia Report also confirmed the hijacking of a vessel.

   “A group of pirates hijacked a new vessel this week. The pirates contacted their friends in the Ceel-Dhanaae area after they had hijacked the vessel,” said a pirate in Garacad village.

   \"The hijackers told us that it is a Panama-flagged ship with 24 crew on board,” he added. \"I don’t know more details about the vessel right now. The pirates are out of phone service and we are not currently in contact with them.\"

   Sources from the pirates added that the vessel has not yet arrived at the Somali coast, while other sources report that she is now in Yemeni waters operating as a mother ship. Somalia Report has not yet received confirmation of this fact.

   Hijackings of Ro/Ro vessels are extremely rare, as the vessels\' high freeboards (the distance from the water line to the deck) prevent pirates from easily boarding them.

   MV Leila\'s last known position was at 16.47 N-056.15E, the eastern entrance to the Gulf of Aden, on a course of 260 at 4 Knots, according to MSCHOA.

   Posted 2 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.