United States and Somalian Hijacking Crisis

Here is a collection of articles that chronicle the United States' entry into the Somalian pirate & hijacking crisis. This begins with the rescue of Maersk Alabama's Captain Richard Phillips on Sunday, April 12, 2009.

Navies to guard undersea cable from Somali pirates Foreign navies have agreed to protect a vessel installing an undersea high-speed Internet cable from pirates off the coast of Somalia, a Kenyan minister said on Thursday. (Reuters, 04/16/2009)

Clinton Calls for Crackdown on Somali Pirate Bases (Update1) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for authorities in Somalia to act against land bases that pirates use to attack ships and said the U.S. will seek ways to track and freeze assets of the brigands. Clinton said she has assigned a team of U.S. diplomats to press the Somali government and leaders of Puntland, a semi- autonomous region in Somalia, to take action against the land bases. (Bloomberg, 04/15/2009)

French raid pirate ship, US seeks to freeze assets The U.S. and its allies battled Somalia's pirates on two fronts Wednesday, with French forces seizing a bandit mother ship and Washington seeking to keep the marauders from their spoils. Another U.S. freighter headed to port with armed sailors aboard after pirates damaged it with gunshots and grenades. (Associated Press/Yahoo News, 04/15/2009)

Somali pirates in brazen challenge to Obama and allies as they hijack FOUR more ships... and open fire on a fifth Somali pirates have brazenly hijacked four more ships in the Gulf of Aden over the last 24 hours and opened fire on a fifth. The pirates captured two trawlers yesterday, a cargo ship named the M.V. Irene overnight, and a second cargo ship named the M.V. Seahorse today. This afternoon a NATO official said a band of pirates had opened fire on a fifth cargo ship - but it managed to escape. (UK MailOnline, 04/14/2009)

U.S. Military Considers Attacks on Somali Pirates’ Land Bases The U.S. military is considering attacks on pirate bases on land and aid for the Somali people to help stem ship hijackings off Africa’s east coast, defense officials said. The military also is drawing up proposals to aid the fledgling Somalia government to train security forces and develop its own coast guard (Bloomberg 04/13/2009)

April 10, 2009 Update on Hijacked vessels

Below are some of the vessels believed to be held by pirates:

NAMES UNKNOWN Seized April 11, 2009, two Egyptian boats, carrying a crew of 24

BUCCANEER, seized April 11, 2009, Italian tugboat, owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors, carrying 10 Italians, 5 Romanians and a Croatian, in the Gulf of Aden.





MAERSK ALABAMA: Siezed April 8, 2009, the 17,000 tonne a Danish-owned, U.S-operated container vessel was hijacked in the Indian Ocean 400 miles off the Somali capital Mogadishu.

MALASPINA CASTLE siezed April 6, 2009, the 32,000-tonne vessel, which flies a Panamanian flag, British owned, wirth crew of 24, including 16 Bulgarians, was taken on Monday morning in the Gulf of Aden.



TANIT Yacht, French sailing boat seized: April 4, 2009, some 640 kilometers (400 miles) off the coast of Ras Hafun, northeast Somalia.

HANSA STAVANGER, German 20,000 ton container vessel, seized off the southern Somalia coast, between Kenya and Seychelles, including a 24 man crew, including 5 Germans.


MV. WIN TAR 161: seized near Seychelles, 3o crew members (the ship's skipper and first engineer are Taiwan nationals, 5 crew members are Chinese, 17 are Filipinos, and 6 are Indonesian),700 ton, Taiwanese deep sea long-line fishing vessel.

SHEHENSHA-E-MADINA, owned by Yasim Salim Sambhina of Salaya: Siezed in Red Sea on March 30, 2009, with 18-member crew

INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009: The 35-metre long boat was built in Hamburg as an oceanographic research vessel. It accommodates around 12 passengers. The yacht Serenity with three people on board was seized in late February or early March.



BOW ASIR: Seized on March 26, 2009. The Norwegian 23,000-tonne, Bahamas-registered chemical tanker was carrying caustic soda. It was operated by Salhus Shipping and carried 27 crew consists of a Norwegian captain, 19 Filipinos, five Poles, one Russian and one Lithuanian.


NIPAYIYA: Seized on March 25, 2009. The 9,000 ton Greek-owned and Panamana-registered MT Nipayia, was seized by pirates 450 miles from Somalia's south coast, including a Russian captain and 18-Philippine crew.



SALDANHA: Seized on Feb. 22, 2009. The Maltese-flagged cargo ship, sailing to Slovenia, has 22 crew and was loaded with coal. TITAN: Seized on March 19, 2009. The 43,000 dwt Saint-Vincent-flagged cargo vessel with 24 crew was sailing from the Black Sea to Korea when it was attacked by pirates.

LONGCHAMP: Seized on Jan. 29, 2009. The liquefied petroleum gas tanker, built in 1990, has 13 crew on board, 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian. The tanker has a capacity of 3,415 tonnes.

NAME UNKNOWN: Seized on Dec. 16. A yacht with two on board, an Indonesian tugboat used by French oil company Total. Pirates also hijacked the Chinese fishing vessel Zhenhua-4 with 30 Chinese crew aboard but it was freed the next day.

STOLT STRENGTH: Seized Nov. 10. The chemical tanker had 23 Filipino crew aboard. It was carrying 23,818 tonnes of oil products.

NAMES UKNOWN: Seized on Dec. 10. Pirates hijacked two Yemeni fishing vessels with a total of 22 crew in coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden. Five crew reportedly escaped.

CHEMSTAR VENUS: Seized Nov. 15. The tanker was travelling from Dumai, Indonesia, to Ukraine. It had 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew.