Communication Lost With Hijacked Ship

Published Nov 30, 2007 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

Communication was recently lost with MV Al Marjan, which was hijacked by Somali pirates on October 17. This has officials, such as Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme, worried because in the past lost communication has resulted in tragedy for hijacked crews. Pirates cut communication when they killed a crewmember on the Ching Fong Hwa, a ship that was hijacked in June and just recently released on November 5.

The Al Marjan hijacking was one in a series of recent hijacking attempts. An ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) article from October 31, citing this current spike in hijackings, describes the event: "On 17 October 2007, a general cargo vessel, the Al Marjan, was hijacked after discharging cargo. The Al Marjan was attacked and boarded approximately fifteen nautical miles from the Somali coast and forced to anchor closer to shore. The owners of the ship have lost contact with the crew and the fate of her eight member crew is currently unknown." As communication has been lost, no new details were known of the Al Marjan when MarEx went online.

Apparently, the owners of another hijacked vessel, the Golden Nori, are in the midst of ransom talks with the pirates who have held the vessel for over four weeks. Though these talks are being held in secret, it has been rumored that the amount may be more than $1 million, possibly even as high as the $1.5 demanded for the Danica White in August of this year. While it seems there is hope for the release of the 23-member crew, it has been reported that one crewmember escaped from the ship and swam two days to safety in South Korea.

Piracy has been increasing in Somalia since the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overturned in 1991 by warlords. Though attacks decreased during the second half of 2006 when Islamists controlled most of southern Somalia, they have been increasing since the Islamists were expelled in January of this year. This year alone, there have been at least thirteen reported hijackings near Somalia -- almost three times the five hijackings reported in the same area for all of 2006.

The waters off the Somali Coast are part of the area that is patrolled by the Combined Task Force 150, a task force under the Combined Maritime Forces Coalition. Twenty countries belong to the Coalition, the main goal of which is to conduct maritime security operations (MSO).