Second tanker in three months hijacked off Yemen by suspected Somali pirates

What the report says

BBC World News reports that a tanker has been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen, in what maritime authorities and Somali security officials described as another sign of renewed pirate activity in the area. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said a vessel travelling east had been boarded by unauthorized people and warned other ships to proceed carefully through the area.

According to the BBC, three security officials from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region identified the vessel as the MT Asana, a Tanzanian-flagged tanker headed for Bosaso in Puntland. The officials said seven armed men who left from a remote area near the Puntland port town of Garacad seized the tanker about 65 nautical miles from Yemen. They also said the attackers were Somali.

The incident is the second reported hijacking off Yemen since May, when the MT Eureka was taken near Qana, the BBC reported. The article also notes that two vessels were boarded in the Indian Ocean in April and that there have been several failed attacks in the wider region. Such incidents had become rare in recent years after multinational naval operations helped suppress piracy off Somalia’s coast.

The BBC adds that the Indian Ocean remains more heavily patrolled by the European Union Naval Force, which coordinates anti-piracy efforts around Somalia, while the Gulf of Aden has comparatively lighter protection. Puntland officials suggested that difference may be drawing pirate groups toward the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping corridor linking the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea and Suez route.