Thursday, February 26, 2009

South Africa: South African Navy May Provide Anti-Piracy Escorts

South Africa's Pretoria News reported Monday that the South African navy is considering a plan to provide escorts for merchant ships traveling up Africa's East Coast from South Africa to Somalia. This move is prompted by the worry that Somali pirates are moving their hijacking operations further south. Once the South African navy escorts reach Somalia, other navies in the region would take over. Already in the last several months there have been a number of incidents in which Somali pirates have seized ships off Tanzania and Kenya, including the Saudi oil supertanker Sirius Star hijacked last November and released in January after a $3 million ransom was paid.

Read More

By Planet Data

Sphere: Related Content

0 comments: