Somali pirates seize tanker with 14 Filipino seamen

(Updated 2:19 a.m., Oct. 25) Somali pirates seized on Saturday a Singaporean liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker with 14 Filipino crew members off Kenya. The European Union Naval Force-Somalia (EU NAVFOR) confirmed on Sunday that MV York was attacked by pirates on Saturday on board two skiffs, approximately 50 miles east from Mombasa in Kenya. The attack was likewise confirmed by York Maritime Company director Gerald Lim in a radio report. According to the EU NAVFOR, MV York recently left Mombasa and was en route to Seychelles when it was attacked. The Turkish warship GAZIANTEP, operating under the Combined Maritime Forces-Task Force 151, launched a helicopter to investigate. It observed that pirates with weapons were on board MV York. Task Force 151 is an international task force set up to respond to piracy attacks in shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia. “Initially the MV York was drifting but then began moving at 10 knots this morning (Sunday). In a separate but seemingly linked incident the fishing vessel Golden Wave, pirated on 9 October 2010, was seen in the vicinity of the MV York," the EU NAVFOR advisory said. Illustration by Analyn Perez Apart from the 14 Filipino crew members, the MV York, with a dead weight of 5,076 tons, also has one German (Master) and two Ukrainian crew on board. According to the EU NAVFOR, including the MV YORK, Somali pirates are now holding 19 vessels with 428 hostages. There has so far been no ransom demand or other communication from the ship or crew, according to the York Maritime Company. Apart from the latest incident, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier said there are still 80 Filipino seamen on board six vessels still being held captive by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. These include one aboard the MV Iceberg 1, 19 on the MV Samho Dream, 19 aboard the MV Eleni P, three aboard the FV Tai Yuan, 18 on the MT Motivator and 20 aboard the MV Izumi. "The DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs continues to coordinate closely with the local manning agencies for the early and safe release of all these seafarers," the DFA had said. Piracy off the Somali coast has been a threat to international shipping since Somalia descended into civil war in 1991, following the overthrow of its former dictator, Siad Barre. There has been little semblance of law and order in Somalia since. The country has been characterized as a failed state. Piracy has contributed to huge increases in shipping costs and has impeded the delivery of food aid shipments — 90 percent of the World Food Programme's shipments to Africa arrive by sea and ships entering the Somali coast now require a military escort. The United Nations has suggested in many reports that unabated illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters by foreign vessels has driven Somali fishermen, severely constrained to earn a living, to turn to piracy instead. From 2003 to 2004, Somalia lost about $100 million in revenue due to illegal tuna and shrimp fishing in the country's exclusive economic zone by foreign trawlers, the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom said in a 2005 report. Poverty is widespread in Somalia, with millions depending on food aid. In 2008, the World Bank reported that as much as 73% of the population lived on a daily income below $2. Some pirates have claimed that they became pirates in order to protect their waters, following the absence of an effective national coastguard following the outbreak of the Somali Civil War and the breakdown of the Armed Forces. This belief is also reflected in the names taken on by some of the pirate networks, such as the National Volunteer Coast Guard (NVCG). Of the estimated 1,200,000 seafarers worldwide, more than 300,000 are Filipinos, the Apostleship of the Sea, a U.K.-based advocacy group, said. - with Jerrie M. Abella/KBK/HS, GMANews.TV