Wonderful news. Forces of Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland region are reported to have raided the MV Iceberg I on Sunday and to have rescued 22 officers and crew who had been held hostage by Somali pirates for 33 months. The Puntland forces had … Continue reading
Tag Archives: somalia
Today is the official “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Time to celebrate murderous thugs and to imitate characters from Disney amusement park rides. Oh goodie. Or maybe not. Today is also an excellent time to consider the very real … Continue reading
Sixteen hostages were freed when the Danish warship HDMS Absalon attacked pirates in control of a hijacker vessel off the coast of Somalia late Sunday. Two crew from the hijacked ship were found to have severe injuries and subsequently died. The circumstances of … Continue reading
The last paragraph of the Associated Press article Navy SEAL Raid in Somalia Shows Campaign Ahead, reads: Several hostages were still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday. Based … Continue reading
Marie Didieu, a disabled 66-year-old French woman, was kidnapped yesterday from her vacation home on Manda Island, part of the Lamu archipelago, not far from where a British tourist was killed and his wife abducted three weeks ago. The kidnappers arrived and departed by … Continue reading
Updates on three previous posts: On Monday, Able Seaman Ryan Donovan was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to murdering a senior officer on board the HMS Astute last April. Submariner’s grudge turned proud day into tragedy British tourist Judith Tebbutt, … Continue reading
Today is “International Talk Like A Pirate Day.” Many use it as an excuse to dress up in bad costumes and shout “Aaargh, Matie” and “Shiver me Timbers,” in some sort of odd homage to Johnny Depp and the Disney … Continue reading
Last February we posted that Somali pirates had hijacked a Danish sailboat with four adults and three children aboard. Yesterday, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced seven Danish citizens, including a family with three children had been released. It has been reported that the pirates were … Continue reading
The son of a fisherman, who moved on to selling khat, Saeed Yare became a pirate only two years ago and “earned” over $2.4 million in 2010 in ransom of ships and crews. It is estimated that piracy is inflicting a $12-billion toll on … Continue reading
The real victims of piracy are invariably the seafarers who are held for ransom often under grim conditions for long periods of time. From a statement relased by the Round Table of international shipping associations – and the International Transport … Continue reading
Given all the reporting on piracy off the Horn of Africa, we hear very little about another crisis – the flood of refugees fleeing the instability and chaos of Somalia’s clan wars. Last year 74,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden in smugglers’ boats to reach Yemen, according … Continue reading
More details on the capture of the M/V Magellan Star. The crew and the ship management company kept their heads and their sense of humor when the ship was boarded by Somali pirates on Wednesday. When the pirates boarded the ship, … Continue reading
Twenty-four U.S. Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Maritime Raid Force stormed the German-owned containership M/V Magellan Star today, capturing the pirates that had seized control of the ship in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. No … Continue reading
Two news stories, days apart demonstrate, at least to me, why the current efforts to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia are doomed to fail. We posted previously how the tanker MV Moscow University was recaptured from pirates by … Continue reading
This week HMS Bounty, the replica ship built for the 1960 movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty,” will be the centerpiece of the “Pirate Weekend” in Newburgh, New York, on the Hudson River, sixty miles north of new York City. The Bounty … Continue reading
In the ongoing somewhat surreal operation against piracy off Somalia, the HDMS Absalon, a Danish destroyer, sank a pirate “mother ship” but allowed the pirates to return to shore. The official goal appears to be to “disrupt” rather than stop pirate activities. … Continue reading
Last week we posted about the International Chamber of Shipping’s concern that governments are not doing enough to combat piracy. Now the British government, after long opposing the payment of ransoms to free hijacked ships is also trying to discourage the … Continue reading
An update on the MV Faina – still being held hostage by Somali pirates. Somali pirates hold whip hand in standoff And a comment by my 12 year old son, Ted. He suggested that he would like to learn some … Continue reading
I was recently published in The Huffington Post. An excerpt: “The Golden Age of Piracy” or Long John Silver in a Tank This morning I was struck by the odd juxtaposition of an announcement for a festival and a … Continue reading
The real life pirate saga, which began Thursday night when Somali pirates seized the Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with a cargo of ammunition, grenade launchers and 33 refurbished Russian T-72 battle tanks, has turned into a stand-off between the pirates holding the crew hostage … Continue reading