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Somalia

04.04.2009: Posn: 09:36N – 058:35E: Somalia.

 

Pirates armed with guns hijacked a yacht with it’s five crew members. They sailed the yacht to an undisclosed location and demanded a ransom for the safe release of the crew and yacht. Fearing pirates may take the crew and hold them hostage on land the authorities launched a rescue operation in which four crew members including a child were rescued. However, the skipper was killed in the incident. Two pirates were killed and three others detained by the authorities.

On Saturday, 4 April, a French cruising yacht was hi-jacked around 640 km off Ras Hafun in Northeast Somalia. The yacht was heading towards the archipelago of Zanzibar before being seized

Taken hostage were the owners, French couple Chloe and Florent Lemacon, their son Colin (aged 3) and two male friends.

It is thought the yacht might have at first looked to the pirates like one of the smaller vessels coming to Somalia. The 5 pirates boarded the yacht, abandoned their mother-ship – a captured Yemeni fishing vessel – and commandeered the yacht to the coast.

During its passage to the Somali coast, the yacht and the people on board came several times (reports speak of 8 overflights) under surveillance by naval aircraft, which caused heightened friction among the 14 pirates and a frenzy on board.

On Thursday 9 April, 20 miles from the Somali coast, the French Navy carried out a series of attacks to free the hostages, resulting in the capture of 3 pirates – 2 were shot dead. Sadly skipper and father Florent Lemacon, was also shot dead during the attack.

It is currently not known whether he was killed by the pirates or caught in the crossfire.

The other 4 hostages were freed.

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