EUNAVFOR confirms hijacking of Japanese vessel

12.10.2010 Somali pirates captured Panamanian-flagged (Japanese-operated) mail vessel Izumi with 20 Filipinos on board, reported Associated Press referring to Lt. Col. Per Klingvall, representative of EUNAVFOR Somalia - Operation Atalanta.

The 14,162-ton vessel sent a distress signal on Sunday noon, local time. Then the radio contact was lost. According to Monday's report of another ship sailed in the same site, Izumi was attacked by pirates.

Danish frigate HDMS Esbern Snare was dispatched to the incident site and managed to communicate with Izumi's shipmaster who confirmed the fact of hijacking. According to him, the vessel currently heads for Somalia and is 274 km southward Mogadishu.

A French warship also tracks the situation, said Lt. Col. Klingvall.

Japanese ministry of transport said the vessel's operator is NYK-Hinode Line, Ltd. The ship sailed from Singapore to Kenyan port Mombasa. At present, it is uncertain what the cargo is.

Pirates have become more active off Kenya during the recent years; most of them act from the territory of neighboring Somalia.

Somalia can not find the answer to the piracy problem because it ceased to exist as united state in 1991 with falling of Siad Barre dictatorship who had been governing the country since late 60's. Currently, world community recognizes Federal Government of Somalia as the only lawful authority in the country; however, the named government controls only a part of a capital city, Mogadishu. The rest parts of Somalia are either under control of unrecognized state formations or self-governed territories which leaders have different views on integration.

Global community evinced first serious concern about the situation in Somalia only five years ago, when the country turned into a world piracy center. According to International Maritime Bureau (IMB), in the first half of 2010 amount of pirate attacks worldwide has significantly reduced because of numerous warships stationed in the Gulf. Searching for loot, pirates began to sail far into the Indian Ocean.