US destroyer tracking hijacked vessels off Somali coast
NAIROBI (AFP) — The US Navy said Thursday it was still tracking two foreign freighters that were hijacked off the Somali coast with a view to combating the pirates on board.
A naval ship was monitoring North Korea's MV Dai Hong Dan and Japanese chemical tanker Golden Mori after engaging pirates who had hijacked the vessels, officials said.
"Piracy is a very complex problem and the US Navy is still monitoring the situation off the Somali coast," US Navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Jessica L. Gandy told AFP.
The US military on Sunday destroyed two small boats that were tied to the Golden Mori, which has 23 Korean, Filipino and Myanmar crew on board, after it was hijacked off the coast of northern Somalia.
The USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) destroyer on Tuesday came to the rescue of MV Dai Hong Dan, helping the crew to regain control. Twenty-two sailors were on board from southern Asia.
One pirate was killed and others captured, but some pirates remain on board.
"The goal of the US Navy is to get the pirates off the ships," a navy spokeswoman said.
Rampant piracy off Somalia's vast coastline stopped in the second half of 2006 during six months of strict rule by an Islamist movement, ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government troops at the end of the year.
The International Maritime Bureau has urged freighters to stay away from Somalia, whose 3,700-kilometre (2,300-miles) coastline is a hotspot in sea ambushes.
The French navy is due mid-November to deploy a vessel to protect UN World Food Programme-charted ships, which have been targeted while ferrying supplies to Somalia in recent months.
Somalia, which lies in a strategic position at the mouth of the Red Sea, has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle.
The three-year-old Somali administration, torn apart by infighting, is unable to stem piracy in its waters and a deadly insurgency raging in the capital Mogadishu.
