In brief: new maritime piracy acts off Somalia's coasts

Posted on April 25, 2008 by Matthieu Desiderio

Less than three weeks ago early April 2008, “Le Ponant”, a ship from French merchant marine company CMA CGM, was hijacked. The French luxury sailboat was assaulted by Somalian pirates and the crew was finally rescued by the French military, and the pirates killed or arrested.

It is now the turn of a Spanish tuna boat (“Playa de Bakio”) which was attacked off Somalia’s coast on Sunday, April 21, 2008. The 26 crew members were approached by pirates armed with grenade launchers, who apparently wish to receive a ransom. To prepare an eventual intervention, a Spanish military ship was deployed, and the Spanish Government sought the help of France and the United States.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, a Japanese tanker was also attacked on Monday, April 22 at about 2:30 AM GMT, in the Somalian waters, by pirates armed with rocket launchers and automatic weapons. The crew managed to escape from the.

These incidents are quite frequent in this region, since maritime traffic is important and this new attack will relaunch the debate around “how to stop or contain maritime piracy?” According to specialist, it will be a tough task to control and stop maritime pirates. However, statistics show that attacks number reduced since 2006… Somewhat “positive”.