Yemeni Fishermen Kidnapped

According to a statement from the Yemeni Interior Ministry, nine Yemeni fishermen have been kidnapped by Somali pirates while fishing in the territorial water of the Arabian Sea.

Somali pirates kidnap nine Yemeni fishermen

Somali pirates have kidnapped nine Somali pirates while they were fishing in the territorial water of the Arabian Sea, Yemen’s Interior Ministry said today.

The ministry said the investigations are ongoing to know the place of the fishermen and their boat.

Yemen had frequently called on the international community to activate cooperation and coordination to combat piracy and the attacks against trading and fishing ships off the Somali boats.

Yemeni officials say Yemen’s coast guards could manage to overcome piracy, pointing out that it lack potentials, equipment, and training of cadres.

Yemeni analysts said piracy could only be ended if the Somali government was strengthened and its security services become able to perform its duties.

The Yemeni Coast Guard Authority (YCG) arrested more that a dozen of Somali pirates in Yemeni waters – though this doesn’t account for those picked up by international fleets more than 12 miles off the coast.

Media sources state that 57 ships were hijacked in the Yemeni waters with 225 failed hijacking attempts in 2010.
Seaborne gangs have been exploiting political turmoil in Yemen to smuggle fuel, and possibly other supplies including food.

When the owners of the hijacked ships fail to pay the ransom, the pirates eventually use the captured vessels as “mother ships” from which to launch further attacks.

Somali piracy began after the collapse of the state in 1991, but it is becoming increasingly violent, and is able to stay out at sea for long periods and in all weather conditions using captured merchant vessels as mother ships. The crisis is costing world trade billions of dollars a year.

Source: Yemen Post