adio Erena: January 20, 2014
Nairobi (RBC) Hours after false alarm came out off the coast of Somalia where suspected pirates hijacked the first ship since 2012; maritime officials immediately dismissed the report.
According to the International maritime officials the Eritrean forces boarded a merchant vessel that was in their territorial waters on Sunday.
“We assess this is an operation by the Eritrean forces, who went on board the vessel,” the spokeswoman for the EU Naval Forces Somalia Lieutenant Commander Jacqueline Sherriff said.
She confirmed that the vessel was now in the hands of the Eritrean forces adding that the incident had initially appeared on a system used for piracy alerts.
International media quoted Sherriff as saying “The crew has reported they thought they were being attacked.”
The attacks by the Somali pirates decreased since 2011 due to relative stability in Somalia which raised hopes of peace and the continuous anti-piracy operations by the international military operating off the Somali coast.
Source: RBC Radio
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