Three hijacked vessels moved as pirates flee

Pirates holding vessels just off the Somali town of Harardhere moved them yesterday after militants seized the town, residents and pirates said.

"The militants have not interfered with us yet but some ships near Harardhere were moved in order to avoid any attempt to interfere," Abdi Yare, a pirate in the nearby coastal town of Hobyo, another pirate hub, said.

Speaking from Hobo, some 230 kilometres further north, he said there was not a single pirate left in Harardhere yesterday.

Fishermen based in Harardhere confirmed that three vessels had been moved. "There were three ships near the coast of Harardhere but this morning we cannot see them, they moved towards Hobyo," Abdikafar Mohamed, a fisherman, said.

"I think the pirates are afraid of the militants and you cannot see them in town today, they fled, you cannot reach them on their cell phones as most of them headed towards Hobyo," he added. As of Sunday three ships were being held in Harardhere, according to Andrew Mwangura, the head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme.

One was the MV Rak Afrikana, a Seychelles-owned cargo vessel sailing under a flag of convenience from the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, he said. It was hijacked last month in the Indian Ocean with a crew of 23 on board.

There was also the UBT Ocean, a Norwegian-owned Marshall Islands-flagged chemical tanker with a 21-man crew from Myanmar and the MV Sakoba, a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel with 16 crew. Residents in Harardhere said the insurgents started patrolling the city yesterday questioning people about the pirates but made no arrests.

Piracy and armed robbery off the country's coast has flourished amid the absence of a federal government and judicial system.

Somali pirates mounted 217 attacks last year, hijacking 47 ships and taking 867 crew members hostage, the London-based United Nations International Maritime Bureau said in January.

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