Pirates on Wednesday captured a Greek cargo ship off the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles while it was on its way to South Africa from Kuwait, a Kenyan maritime official and the EU said.
The Filitsa is the latest vessel to be seized off the Seychelles, which has seen a surge in piracy over the past month.
It included a crew of 19 Filipinos and three Greeks, and was seized 400 kilometres (250 miles) off the Seychelles, the EU naval mission said.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Filitsa was heading for Durban when it was hijacked, but has been turned round and is currently moving north, the EU’s Atalanta mission said.
The Kenyan official provided similar information.
“It was seized this morning some 513 nautical miles north of the Seychelles,” said Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program.
The vessel was ferrying urea to Durban, Mwangura added.
Since last month, Somali pirates have gone on the rampage in the Indian Ocean with calm waters at the end of the monsoon season enabling them to launch attacks as far as 1,000 kilometres away from the capital Mogadishu.
Last year, Western nations deployed a flotilla of warships to secure the Gulf of Aden as a surge in piracy threatened a key maritime route. This has since seen the pirates switch to the Indian Ocean.
On Tuesday, the Seychelles and the European Union signed an agreement authorizing EU naval forces to hunt and detain suspected Somali pirates in waters off the Seychelles.
The deal is also designed to help the tiny Indian Ocean nation develop its own anti-piracy capacities, the foreign affairs ministry said.
The Seychelles had already signed similar agreements with France and the United States.
(source: AFP)
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