Mr Andrew Mwangura (pictured), coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, identified the vessel as the MV Amani, but no other details were immediately available. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
NAIROBI - SOMALI pirates have hijacked another vessel, a Yemen cargo ship, in the Gulf of Aden, a regional maritime official said on Tuesday.
Mr Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, identified the vessel as the MV Amani, but no other details were immediately available.
Why hijack a plane when you can seize a supertanker?
WHEN pirates armed with little more than AK-47s and rope ladders seized a supertanker last week, they showed how simple it is to storm a ship - a vulnerability that Al-Qaeda could exploit to attack the global economy.
Security analysts say the ease with which Somali pirates have captured a huge range of vessels illustrates how much more at risk global shipping is to terrorist attack than the airline industry, which massively improved security after September 2001.
Word of the latest attack at sea came 10 days after gunmen from Somalia seized a Saudi supertanker in the largest hijacking in maritime history.
The Nov 15 capture of the Sirius Star - with US$100 million (S$151.6 million) of oil and 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines - focused world attention on rampant piracy off the failed Horn of Africa state.
Scores of attacks this year have brought millions of dollars of ransom payments, hiked up shipping insurance costs, sent foreign navies rushing to the area, and left about a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages still in pirates' hands. -- REUTERS
