Hijacked ship was on way to Somalia

MV QSM Dubai, a cargo ship owned by Dubai-based Qawareb Ship Management, with 24 crewmen, was hijacked by Somali pirates yesterday morning.

Captain Maqsood Khan, Port Captain and QSM's security officer, told Emirates Business that the ship was carrying sugar from Brazil to Somalia.

According to Captain Khan, the ship must be carrying cargo worth more than $9million (Dh33m). "We got to know of the incident when the pirates contacted us that the vessel has been hijacked. The incident occurred at around 5am UAE time," he said.

"The crew included 12 Egyptians, nine Pakistanis, two Indians and a Bangladeshi national. The ship was captained by Captain Jaffer Faffri from Pakistan. We have informed some of the families and are yet to inform the others," said Khan.

Meanwhile in a statement, the European Union's anti-piracy unit Eunavfor said following the information from the ship owners, USS Cole from CTF 508 (Nato) had reported that they had seen a person with an RPG on board. "A coalition Maritime Patrol Aircraft was tasked to investigate the situation and reported that the ship was hijacked." The MV QSM Dubai, a Panama flagged general cargo ship with dead weight of 15,220 tonnes, was coming from Brazil when hijacked in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor.