Somali pirates seized Indian dhow Laxmi Sagar

15.12.2009 Source: RIA Novosti, photo: Somali pirates (eppf.net)

Somali pirates seized Indian single-mast coastwise vessel (dhow) Laxmi Sagar; crew strength is uncertain, said Reuters Monday referring to Andrew Mwangura, Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program coordinator.

"It was taken, I think, yesterday. The crew is Indian", said the interviewee.

"We've no idea where exactly the vessel was hijacked. We don't know how many they are [crewmembers], but the dhows have always got more than 10 people", specified Mr. Mwangura.

Coordinator of assistance program underlined that his group was exerting every effort to obtain details about the vessel and sailors.

Presently, 11 vessels and 283 crewmembers are being held captives by pirates.

The latest loot of pirates were Greek tanker Maran Centaurus with cargo oil at the cost of tens of million dollars hijacked on Nov 29 and Pakistani fishing vessel Shahbaig with 29 sailors aboard.

According to UN Secretary General's report on piracy, during 2008 there were 306 pirate attacks registered worldwide, 136 of them happened near East Africa. Since Jan 1 till Sept 30, 2009 these numbers were 300 and 160 correspondingly. It was mentioned in the report that as a result of international anti-piracy efforts off Somalia number of captures of merchant ships has decreased, although pirate attacks continue to increase in number.