A United States navy ship is keeping watch on pirates off Somalia’s coast who seized a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks and other military supplies to Kenya, a regional maritime group said on Monday.
The pirates, who captured the MV Faina and its 21 crew members on Friday en route to Mombasa port, have reduced their ransom demand to $20-million from $35-million, the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme added.
The seizure, the most dramatic in a rash of recent hijackings off lawless Somalia, has worrying ramifications for the turbulent east African region and the commercially strategic Gulf of Aden.
The sealane in the Arabian Sea between Yemen and Somalia links the Gulf and Asia to Europe and beyond via the Suez Canal and is critical to Gulf oil shipments.
Analysts say that while the pirates would be unable to offload the tanks, the other military equipment on board or a large ransom may give a dangerous tilt to the civil war in Somalia where Islamists rebels are battling the government.
It is not known, however, if the maritime gangs have links to any factions in the insurgency.
There is also controversy over the destination of the tanks.
Kenya says they were intended for its military, but some analysts believe they may have been headed for south Sudan in breach of an arms embargo.
Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan-based Seafarers’ Programme, said the Faina was sitting a few kilometres off the Somali coastal village of Hinbarwaqo on Monday, closely monitored by the USS Howard which had come close enough for visual contact.
”They cannot attack because we think there are dangerous chemicals on board too,” he said.
A helicopter, probably US, had been buzzing over the Faina to prevent people on shore reinforcing the vessel.
”Ten small boats were headed to the ship yesterday [Sunday]. But they went back when the chopper buzzed them,” Mwangura said.
”With the helicopter and the Howard watching them, the tactic is clearly to scare the pirates.”
Pirates have captured more than 30 vessels off Somalia this year, making its waters the most dangerous in the world.
Mwangura said one of the Faina‘s crew, a Russian, had died on board due to sickness since the hijack.
Kenya reacted angrily to suggestions, by the Seafarers’ Programme and some anonymous military sources, that the Faina‘s military cargo was headed secretly for south Sudan.
”There have been alarming propaganda by the pirates to media that the weapons are not for the Kenyan military. This is a tactic by the terrorists to try and fend off reprisals against them,” government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said.
”The Kenyan Government will not engage in answering back to terrorists who have hijacked important military equipment paid for by the Kenyan tax payer for use by the Kenyan Military.” – Reuters