Pirates captured Ukrainian-crewed cargo ship off Somalia

27.09.2010 Sea robbers hijacked a cargo vessel with Ukrainian crew on board in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, reported Associated Press referring to anti-piracy mission Atalanta.

The crew of MV Lugela sent distress signal to its Greek operator on Saturday, being about 900 miles off "pirate" city of Eyl. After a while, the ship set course for Somalia.

MV Lugela headed for Mauritius and carried steel rods and wires; there are 12 Ukrainians on board, said the press release.

Global community evinced first serious concern about the situation in Somalia only five years ago, when this country disintegrated far back in 1991 had turned into world piracy center.

Basically, anti-piracy off Somalia is carried out within the framework of EU naval operation Atalanta launched in 2008 and NATO operation Ocean Shield started in 2009. Aside from the major objective – anti-piracy activities – operation Ocean Shield also implies assistance to local countries to make own steps in countering piracy.

According to London-headquartered International Maritime Bureau (IMB), in the first quarter of 2010 amount of pirate attacks worldwide reduced on 34% comparing to analogous period of 2009; mostly, because of continuous international naval operations in the Gulf of Aden.