Fears of a renewed threat to shipping in the Indian Ocean have been realised after a Greek vessel was hijacked at the weekend.
The seizure of the 4,281-dwt Lugela (built 1984) almost a 1,000 miles off Somalia’s eastern coast signals a worrying shift in focus from the Gulf of Aden to a huge expanse of ocean which is all-but impossible to patrol.
The Panama-flagged ship sent a distress signal to its Greek operator TDM Carriers early on Saturday morning when it was 900 miles east of the notorious Puntland pirate lair of Eyl, a statement from counter-piracy force EU NAVFOR read.
“A short while later, the vessel altered course to sail towards the Somali coast. There has been no contact with the ship throughout this incident.”
There is an all-Ukrainian crew of 12 onboard the ship which had just transitted the treacherous Gulf of Aden and was headed towards Mauritius with steel bars and wires.
Although the beneficial owner of the Lugela is unknown, its registered owner shares the same address as its operator and manager, TDM.
Naval forces have been warning for some time that the retreat of regional monsoons was likely to lead pirates to attack ships further out from the war-torn country’s coast as sea conditions became more favourable. To that end Brussels recently gave EU NAVFOR a new mandate to operate in a wider expanse of the Indian Ocean.
