Yemen Coast Guard Says Oil Tanker Hijacked Off Yemen, Diverted Toward Somalia

An oil tanker was hijacked by unidentified assailants off Yemen’s coast in the Gulf of Aden and forced toward Somalia, according to Yemen’s coast guard.

The agency said the tanker EUREKA was taken near Yemen’s Shabwa province by a group that “boarded, took control of it, then steered it … in the direction of the Somali coast”.

]The coast guard, aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said it would investigate the assault.

“The location of the tanker has been determined, and work is under way to monitor it and take the necessary measures in an attempt to recover it and ensure the safety of its crew,” the agency said, without disclosing the number of crew members or their nationality.

Piracy once surged off Somalia’s shores in the 2000s, reaching a high point in 2011 with hundreds of incidents, before international naval patrols and tougher shipping practices sharply curbed the threat.

In recent weeks, however, attacks have risen again, according to a report from the European Union naval mission operating off the coast of the troubled east African nation.

Operation Atalanta, the EU naval force assigned to Somalia, tracked three attacks in late April, its information service, the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO), said.

Shipping in the region has also been disrupted since 28 February by the US-Israeli war against Iran, though there was no immediate sign that the tanker’s seizure was tied to that conflict.

Last month, a tanker was seized in the Gulf of Aden by a new pirate group based in the port town of Garacad in Puntland State, in northeastern Somalia, a local security official told AFP.