Five crew members were killed aboard the hijacked MT Honour 25 before Puntland State security forces retook the petroleum-products tanker, authorities in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland State state said Tuesday.
Puntland State officials also announced the rescue of a second vessel that pirates seized in May.
- Advertisement -
The deaths aboard the Palau-flagged tanker appear to mark the first fatalities inflicted by Somali pirates in more than a decade.
The vessel, carrying 17 crew members, was captured by pirates in April amid a renewed surge in Somali piracy. Experts have linked the resurgence partly to effects of the Iran war, including higher oil prices that have made tankers more appealing targets.
Puntland State’s information ministry said a rescue operation had successfully secured the ship and resulted in the capture of 16 pirates.
“Before the operation begun, the pirates on board the ship killed five of the crew. Among those killed were three from Pakistan, one from Myanmar and one from India,” it said.
Four other crew members—three Pakistanis and one Indian—were wounded, according to the statement.
The operation came after another rescue last week, when Puntland State’s maritime police freed the US-sanctioned tanker Sibu 1, which Somali pirates had seized in August.
The Puntland State Maritime Police Force (PMPF) said late Tuesday that it had also recovered the oil tanker MT Eureka, hijacked in May, after the attackers abandoned the vessel as police moved in.
“As PMPF forces approached the area, the pirates fled towards the shore and moved inland,” it said.
“PMPF forces continue to pursue the individuals involved and are conducting further operations to apprehend those who escaped.”
The two operations mean that five of the six vessels held by pirates off Somalia’s coast as of late August have now been released.
A major piracy wave between 2008 and 2014 disrupted one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, cost the global economy billions of dollars and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.
Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani and Aaron Ross; Editing by Peter Graff, Alistair Bell and Thomas Derpinghaus
