Suspected Somali pirates seized a 14,000-ton Japanese cargo ship with some 20 Filipino crew, some 70 nautical miles off the coast of Mombasa in Kenya Sunday.
Initial information from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB)’s Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur showed the Filipino crew was taken hostage.
“Normally, pirate activity picks up off the Africa coast when the South West monsoon recedes. We are monitoring the situation after the attack on the ship but won’t be able to give more details at the moment," Cyrus Mody of the IMB said in an article posted on United Arab Emirates news site Khaleej Times Tuesday.
Khaleej Times quoted the Japanese transport ministry as saying the Panama-flagged ship named Izumi, was operated by NYK-Hinode Line Ltd.
It said the ship was carrying a cargo of steel and was heading for Mombasa.
State-run Philippines News Agency quoted European Union Naval Force spokesman Lt. Col Per Klingvall as saying owners of the MV Izumi reported Sunday that they had received an automatically released distress signal indicating that the vessel was likely to be under pirate attack.
Klingvall said the Danish warship HDMS Esbern Snare of the NATO counter-piracy force was dispatched to intercept and investigate.
“In the early hours of October 11 the captain of the vessel made contact with the Danish warship, stating that pirates were in charge of the MV Izumi," he said. — LBG
