The Pirate Report
Reporting the age of modern piracy

PARIS (Reuters) - A French frigate captured 11 Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday after foiling an attack on a Liberian-flagged merchant ship, the French defence ministry said. Naval forces from around the world are battling pirates in and around the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes where even intervention by the U.S. military has not stopped a new spate of hijackings and hostage-taking. The French frigate Nivose captured the pirates' mothership, which was carrying two small assault boats, some 900 kilometres east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Tuesday, the defence ministry said. "The centre of… Read More

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… Read More