On Monday, Sri Lankan officials announced the successful rescue of six crew members from a Sri Lankan fishing trawler that had been hijacked by suspected Somali pirates.
The incident, occurring on Sunday, is the latest in a series of attacks that have raised concerns about the resurgence of Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea waters, following a period of relative calm.
The pirates, believed to be capitalizing on the disorder resulting from attacks on shipping by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group, have triggered alarm in the strategic waterways.
The pirates, notorious for causing chaos in these regions from 2008 to 2018, have seemingly exploited the current vulnerabilities.
Officials were alerted to the hijacking by a second boat traveling with the trawler on Sunday. The Seychelles coast guard promptly responded to the distress call, initiating a special operation to rescue the trawler and its crew.
Sri Lankan navy spokesperson Gayan Wickramasuriya reported that all crew members were successfully rescued, and three suspected Somali pirates were detained during the operation.
The rescue operation unfolded approximately 230 nautical miles from Seychelles’ Mahe Island, according to Wickramasuriya. The incident highlights the persistent threat of piracy in these waters.
Notably, the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen had been held near the Somali coast for a month-and-a-half, marking the first hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017. In a separate incident on Saturday, a security team on a bulk carrier, positioned 780 nautical miles off Somalia’s coast, engaged in a firefight with armed individuals on a skiff that approached the vessel suspiciously, as reported by British maritime monitors.
The situation underscores the ongoing challenges posed by piracy in the region, prompting heightened security measures and international cooperation to ensure the safety of maritime activities.
