Somali Pirates Hijack Oil Tanker in Indian Ocean #piracy #marsec #shipping #maritime #security #insu

The 1,800 dwt UAE Flagged Bunker Tanker ARIS 13 was sailing between Djibouti and Mogadishu, the vessel’s AIS stopped transmitting around 0934 hours UTC,.

Regional officials say they are still assessing the circumstances of the hijack, which took place Monday.

The incident was confirmed by local authorities and Naval Force operating in Gulf of Aden. During the hijacking the bunker tanker Aris 13 has eight crew on board, but their destiny is unknown.

There is no ransom request yet and authorities did not succeeded to get in contact with pirates.

“The vessel’s captain reported to the company they were approached by two skiffs and that one of them they could see armed personnel on board”, said the spokeswoman for the European Union Naval Force operation off Somalia, Ftl Lt Louise Tagg and confirmed about the accident. “The ship changed course quite soon after that report and is now anchored”, added she.

Aircraft from regional naval force EU Navfor were flying overhead to track the ship’s progress and to try to determine what was happening, but the only known information is that the ship was anchored off Alula.

Sources said that two skiffs carrting about 20 armed pirates were involved in the attack, and the AIS shows that at 1900 hours UTC the vessel was sitting at anchor off Ras Caluula, (Aluula), a coastal town in the northeastern Bari province of Somalia.