VICTORIA: Seychelles forces have freed a Sri Lankan vessel “hijacked by armed Somali pirates”, President Wavel Ramkalawan’s office said on Monday, in the latest attack against shipping in the Indian Ocean.
Yemen’s Houthis have carried out scores of attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden targeting Israeli-linked ships in response to Israel’s war against the Palestinian group Hamas.
International naval troops have been diverted north from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea, sparking fears of resurgent pirates exploiting the gap, with the first successful case of Somali piracy since 2017 witnessed in December.
The presidency said in a statement that Seychellois special military forces boarded the vessel with utmost courage to take complete control of the ship and rescue our Sri Lankan brothers, western media reported.
Colombo’s navy reported a hijacking at the weekend, stating that Somali pirates had seized the Lorenzo Putha–4 on Saturday, about 840 nautical miles southeast of Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu.
Brigadier Michael Rosette, the chief of the Seychelles defense forces, said that Seychellois authorities were informed of the attack on Saturday.
Vessel on its way to Victoria
He added that the boat is on its way to Victoria or it will arrive at the port tomorrow.
It was not immediately clear if the boat freed by the Seychelles forces was the Lorenzo Putha-4.
Pirate attacks off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 — with the gunmen carrying out strikes as far as 3,655 kilometres from the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean — before falling off sharply in recent years.
In December, Somali pirates hijacked the bulk carrier MV Ruen.
The Bulgaria-owned and Malta-flagged ship was seized by Somali pirates 380 nautical miles east of the Yemeni island of Socotra on 16 December.
The pirates, who released one wounded sailor into the care of the Indian navy, took the MV Ruen and its remaining seventeen crew members to Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland.
