A Russian warship was heading for the pirate-ridden waters off Somalia on Friday after a Ukrainian freighter was seized with tanks and other military hardware aboard.
The Belize-flagged Faina, with a crew of 21, including three Russians, was hijacked on Thursday while on its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, reportedly with a cargo including 30 T-70 battle tanks and armoured vehicle spares.
Andrew Mwangura, who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said the cargo ship had been heading from the Baltic to discharge 2 320 tonnes of military hardware.
Announcing the dispatch of the frigate, Russian navy spokesperson Igor Dygalo said the reason for the deployment was ”the rise in pirate attacks, including against Russian citizens”.
The Faina‘s whereabouts were unknown on Friday but Somali pirates often take ships to Eyl, a harbour in the lawless country’s northern breakaway region of Puntland.
The owners of the cargo, which reportedly originated from the Baltic states, remained unclear but most Eastern Africa nations use Mombasa for their imports.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday authorities were verifying the shipment of the freighter managed by the Ukraine-based Tomax Team company.
Its crew comprises 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and a Latvian, the company said.
”The captain reported that three cutter boats with armed people approached the Faina, and then communication was cut off,” it added, quoting information given by Tomax Team.
”The ship was transporting military hardware, including some 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for armoured vehicles,” Russia’s Interfax news agency said, quoting informed sources.
The Soviet-era T-72 was a frontline tank in Warsaw Pact states and is still in service in more than 30 countries.
Dozens of ships, mainly merchant vessels, have been seized by gangs off Somalia’s 3 700km coastline in recent years, despite the presence of Western navies deployed in the region to fight terrorism.
The pirates travel in speedboats and are armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. They sometimes hold ships for weeks until they are released for large ransoms paid by governments or owners.
‘Catastrophic situation’
Meanwhile, heavy fighting has forced 15 000 people to flee their homes in Mogadishu in the past week, taking the total number of displaced in the Somali capital since January to 160 000, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
”This week’s fighting in the Somali capital, described by witnesses as the worst since the beginning of the latest insurgency in February 2007, has forced at least 15 000 people from their homes,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Ron Redmond told journalists.
Almost half of the displaced have moved to safer areas of Mogadishu while most of the others have fled west to the town of Afgooye, which is already ”jammed” with more than 300 000 internally displaced people, the UNHCR said.
”The new wave of displacement in Mogadishu is worsening an already catastrophic situation in a war-torn country where more than one million people are displaced,” Redmond warned.
Thousands of Somalis are fleeing across the border to Kenya, despite the frontier being formally closed since early 2007. — AFP
