Bulker Sea-Jacked by Somali Sea-Shifta

he bulk carrier MV Renuar is at present commandeered to the Somali coast...

Panama-flagged MV Renuar

(NAIROBI, Kenya ECOTERRA Intl.) - A cargo vessel was captured on 11 December 2010 at around 05h40 UTC in position 06:09N – 067:19E, which is approximately 360nm SW of Minicoy Island, 1,200nm from Mogadishu in Somalia and 550nm off the Indian coast. Naval reporting centres finally confirmed our reports today, on Sunday.

The Panama-flagged MV Renuar is a bulk cargo vessel with a dead-weight of 70,156 tonnes and was en route to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates from Port Louis in Mauritius when it was captured on Saturday, EU NAVFOR confirmed and stated: "The pirates have confirmed that they have control of the ship which is now heading west towards the Somali coast." The EU stated it was a Liberian-owned vessel.

But Europe's best ship register states that Candy Ent Inc. from Greece is the registered owner and Maryville Maritime Inc. from Greece the manager. Though the Greek ship register is notoriously in shambles, it is not known how EU NAVFOR arrives at the conclusion that the vessel would be Liberian owned.

The pirates launched the attack from 2 skiffs, supported by a mother ship, with fire of small arms and rocket propelled grenades forcing the merchant vessel to stop. The bulker has a 24-man all-Filipino crew, who attempted to evade the pirates for some time, causing the pirates to make several attacks before finally boarding the vessel. One of the pirates had died during the attack - marine observers reported yesterday.

That at present more and more of the previously already captured fast fishing vessels are used to launch far-reaching attacks is widely known and analysts can not understand why these vessels are not tracked better by the navies.

The bulk carrier MV Renuar (IMO9042221) is at present commandeered to the Somali coast, but naval centres stated that they have for the moment no communications with the ship and that the condition of the crew is not known.

No matter what the navies say: Today, 12. December 2010, 12h00 UTC, at least 36 foreign vessels plus one barge are kept in Somali hands against the will of their owners, while at least 668 hostages or captives - including a South-African yachting couple - suffer to be released.