It seems the Spanish Main has fallen out of favor, the Horn of Africa has become the new hotspot of at sea terror. I saw this article in the
WaPo earlier this evening. God help us if pirates decide to hijack, oh, say, an oil supertanker and sink it in the Straits of Hormuz....
More below...
Somali Pirates to Free Crew of Hijacked Tanker
By Andrew Cawthorne
Reuters
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page A17
NAIROBI, Aug. 6 -- Somali pirates who seized 10 hostages more than a month ago on a ship chartered by the U.N. World Food Program have agreed to release the vessel and crew, a spokeswoman for the organization said Saturday.
"An agreement has been reached for the release of the ship, crew and food in the next three days," the spokeswoman, Rene McGuffin, said in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
In the most high-profile of a recent spree of hijackings off the coast of lawless Somalia, the militiamen seized the MV Semlow on June 27 as it headed for the northern port of Bossaso carrying tons of rice donated by Japan and Germany.
Armed pirates often use speed boats to attack ships in the area and even targeted a laden oil tanker in one of nine incidents in recent weeks reported by the International Maritime Bureau, which maintains a Piracy Reporting Center in Malaysia.
In the World Food Program case, the pirates initially demanded a $500,000 ransom for the eight Kenyan crew members, Sri Lankan captain and Tanzanian engineer. They then reduced that to demand only the rice.
but the killer 'graph is the last one.
Among at least 25 attacks since the start of the year, the bureau reported an attack on a petroleum-product tanker on July 26 by a band of pirates in two speed boats armed with rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns. "It's very alarming, a considerable increase on the last quarter -- we are losing count," said Jayant Abhyankar, the bureau's deputy director.
Fun times, eh?