An oil tanker with 17 crew members was hijacked by pirates while sailing near the Somali coast, APA can report on Saturday.
According to security officials from Somalia’s Puntland, the ship was overrun late on Wednesday by six gunmen when it was approximately 30 nautical miles offshore.
The vessel knwn as Honour 25 was reportedly on its way to a Mogadishu port at the time it was seized by the pirates.
The seizure of a tanker headed for the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is likely to increase anxiety in the city where petrol prices have already tripled since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.
It was carrying 18,500 barrels of oil, security officials from Puntland were quoted as saying.
The hijacked ship departed the port of Berbera, in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, on 20 February and arrived near the coast of the United Arab Emirates shortly after the conflict began, according to the Ship Atlas website.
The shipping map then shows it circling in the waters close to the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz before turning around on 2 April and making its way towards Mogadishu.
Under the control of the pirates, the vessel, carrying 17 crew -10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan and one from Myanmar, has anchored close to the Somali shore between the fishing towns of Xaafun and Bander Beyla.
Officials believe the hijackers set off from a remote area near Bander Bevla, It is unclear how they were able to intercept and take control of the oil tanker.
Neither the Somali authorities nor the European Naval Force, which oversees anti-piracy operation in Somali operation, has released a statement on the hijacking
MG/as/APA