Assailants carrying AK-47s and machine guns have boarded a Chinese fishing boat with 18 seafarers, in the first recorded piracy event off Somalia in six months.
The European Union’s Atalanta naval force (EUNAVFOR) confirmed the incident on Thursday.
It said the Liao Dong Yu fishing vessel has been under the control of the assailants since 27 November.
Some of them are carrying AK-47s and machine guns. None of the crew members have been injured so far.
Even though the statement describes the assailants as “alleged” pirates, the EU force said it has decided after its own investigation to classify the incident as an “armed robbery sea”.
This is how EUNAVFOR describes piracy cases occurring within a country’s territorial waters.
The EU force added, however, that the incident could be the result of friction in the area between local fishermen and other fishing vessels “engaged in illegal extractive activities”.
Atalanta swung into action upon receiving an alert from the Puntland maritime police force concerning a Chinese boat hijacked off the region’s north-east coast in the vicinity of Garmaal.
Atalanta said it is in contact with Somali and Chinese authorities over the incident but added that “the solution to the situation is in the hands of the representatives of the Chinese government in Somalia”.
Two months ago, EUNAVFOR warned that a party of 13 people, possibly pirates, had sailed out from the Somali villages of Ceel Huur and Ivo Hobyo.
That warning, however, was retracted a few days later after no piracy activity was detected in the area. Atalanta’s threat evaluation has been at “moderate” level since, which means attacks remain “a realistic possibility”.
Including the Liao Dong Yu, the EU force has counted 44 piracy-related incidents in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin since November 2023.
Twenty-eight of them were actual attacks, boardings or hijackings. Dhows, which pirates often seize to subsequently use as a mothership for attacks on larger vessels, have been the victim 19 times.
EUNAVFOR described the remaining incidents as “suspicious approaches” or “suspicious activity”.
There has been a relative lull of attacks since the hijacking on 23 May of the 17,950-dwt general cargo ship Basilisk (built 2013).
As the monsoon period ends, however, pirates may be encouraged by benign weather to strike out again.
“It is a realistic possibility” that pirates become active in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin, EUNAVFOR said on 6 December.
