MOSCOW (Agencies)
Russia's navy has sent a warship to Somalia's coast to combat pirates and will mount regular anti-piracy patrols in the area, a navy spokesman told Russian state television on Friday.
"In the future the Russian navy will send its ships on a regular basis to zones where there is a danger from maritime piracy," navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told the Vesti-24 television station.
He said one Russian warship left its base on the Baltic Sea on September 24 heading for the area off Somalia's coast to tackle pirates operating there. The ship is equipped for a crew of around 200 and is armed with torpedoes, missiles, artillery and mines.
A Ukrainian freighter was seized by pirates on Thursday with tanks and other military hardware aboard. The Belize-flagged Faina with a crew of 21, including three Russians, was hijacked while on its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, reportedly with a cargo including 30 T-70 battle tanks and armored vehicle spares.
Dozens of ships, mainly merchant vessels, have been seized off Somalia's 3,700-kilometre coastline in recent years, despite the presence of Western navies deployed in the region to fight terrorism.
The pirates travel in speedboats and are armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. They sometimes hold ships for weeks until ransoms are paid by governments or owners.
In recent months, a multinational taskforce based in Djibouti has been patrolling parts of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where a pirate mother ship is believed to be operating.
French naval commandos have taken action against pirates who seized two sailing vessels with French citizens aboard and arrested a dozen suspects.
They were brought to France and are awaiting trial on charges of hijacking, hostage-taking and armed robbery, which carry life sentences.
Some pirates have justified their actions by claiming that, in the absence of a functional central authority in Somalia, they were battling illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping by foreign countries.
Somalia has been without an effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre set off a deadly power struggle that has defied more than a dozen peace initiatives. |
