SECURITY
EU NAVFOR Averts Possible Piracy Act By George Sunguh
E
uropean Union's Navy Forces (EU NAVFOR) Somalia Opera on Atlanta recently conducted incident response procedures in response to a possible act of piracy off the Coast of Somalia.
reported. Quo ng, a regional governor in Somalia Mr. Musse Salah, the governor of Gardafu in the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland, the report said the ship was travelling from the UAE to Mogadishu when pirates a acked it in the first successful hijacking since 2017.
This was done with the support of a Japanese aircra of the Combined Mari me Forces (CMF) and in close coordina on with local authori es in Somalia.
In a press release shared with African Shipping Review, by EU NAVFOR Somalia stated on
The opera on dispelled fears that there could have been a re-emergence of piracy as highlighted by press reports that six armed men had hijacked the Panama-flagged Aegean II on Wednesday a er engine problems were
August 18th, EU NAVFOR OHQ Joint Opera ons Centre detected suspicious movements when Panama flagged MT “AEGIAN II”, a chemical/oil tanker with armed security guards on board in transit from Shajah (UAE) and bound
for Mogadishu (Somalia) altered her course without any apparent reason. Expedi ous inves ga ons conducted by a EU NAVFOR mari me patrol aircra including radio contact, concluded that the vessel was having technical problems and the crew was safe. On August 20th, open sources reported that a vessel could have been hijacked in the same area. EU NAVFOR Somalia connected this informa on to the situa on of the MT “AEGEN II”, previously monitored, and ESPS Santa Maria was detached to inves gate and execute incident response procedures with the support of a CMF aircra . Con nued to Pa30...
AFRICAN SHIPPING REVIEW July/Sept. 2020
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