Showing posts with label pirate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pirate. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Four Americans 'killed by Somali pirates'

Four Americans taken from their yacht in the Indian Ocean by Somali pirates have been shot dead, the US military has said. US naval forces on the way to try to rescue the Americans heard gunshots and on arrival found the four hostages had been killed.


Friday, February 18, 2011

Somali piracy threat worsening by the week, say shippers


Pirates leave a merchant vessel (not shown) for the Somali shore, while under observation by a US Navy ship, in this picture taken on October 8, 2008

Somali piracy is worsening by the week and governments lack the political will to tackle the crisis, which is threatening world trade routes, shipping industry officials said today.

Shippers have warned that more than 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil supply passes through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea and is at risk from seaborne gangs, who are able to operate ever further out to sea and for longer periods, using captured merchant vessels as motherships.




Monday, February 1, 2010

Skeletal and terrified: British yacht couple reveal cruelty of their Somali pirate captors

Her face is gaunt and drawn, her frame skeletal and weak.

The shocking effects of captivity are all too clear in this picture of Rachel Chandler, who has been held by Somali pirates for the last three months.

The image was taken by a French news agency that was allowed to accompany a doctor who examined Mrs Chandler and her husband Paul, who are being held separately.

The strain on 56-year-old Mrs Chandler’s face is clearly visible as she sits with her dress hanging loosely from her thin shoulders.

Yesterday she renewed her plea for urgent help, saying: ‘We have not much time left and are being badly treated. Please help us – these people are not treating us well.’

She went on: ‘I’m old, I’m 56, and my husband is 60 years old. We need to be together because we have not much time left. These people are treating us so cruelly.’

This is only the second time Mrs Chandler, an economist, has been seen since she and her husband were kidnapped in October at gunpoint as they sailed in their yacht towards Tanzania.

The last time was in November, when a video taken by the kidnappers – who are demanding a £1.9million ransom – was shown on Channel 4.
They have made other pleas for help in desperate phone calls, most recently on January 21, but the physical deterioration in yesterday’s new images are clear.

The Somalian doctor who examined Mrs Chandler said she was suffering a heavy ‘mental’ toll as well, which was manifested in ‘insomnia’.

Surgeon Mohamed Helmi Hangul, who spent three weeks securing permission to visit the couple, said: 'She's very confused, she's always asking about her husband - "Where's my husband, where's my husband?" - and she seems completely disorientated.'

'If I was with my husband I would feel a lot better,' Mrs Chandler told the medic.

'It's because I am not with my husband that I am feeling so lonely and desperate and finding it difficult to sleep.

'I need to be with Paul. We are husband and wife. We have always been together and we look after one another.'Mr Chandler also appeared gaunt in the video taken last Thursday but released last night.

His ribs could be seen as he lifted his shirt to be checked by the doctor, who reported he had a cough and a fever.

In the video, filmed by the AFP photographer, Mr Chandler, a retired quantity surveyor, called on the British Government to intervene.

'I just want to say please to my government, get me and my wife out of here. We are innocent we have done nothing wrong.
We have no money and can’t pay a ransom. We just need the Government to help, anyone who can get us out of here.

‘Day after day and this is 98 days of solitary confinement, no exercise. I don’t know what to do.’

Mr Chandler finally pleaded: ‘Will somebody please help? The government or somebody else.’
Dr Hangul added he had not been allowed to bring any drugs with him but left a prescription-with the pirates.

‘I gave them some advice and told them, “Your hostages can die. All you want is money so treat them well, let them reunite”,’ he said.

Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, was too distressed to comment last night.

A family friend said: ‘This is a highly distressing time for the family. They know the stakes are high and they are in an impossible position.

'The pirates want an unaffordable ransom and the Government won’t pay it.’

There has been sporadic communication with the Chandlers since they were captured, although this was the first time a journalist had been able to meet them.
Eleven days ago Mr Chandler spoke to ITV news, explaining their captives had ‘set a deadline of three or four days’, after which they expected to them to ‘kill us and abandon us in the desert’.

In a separate call, Mrs Chandler said she had been hit with an object she believed was a gun.

A gang member told the Daily Mail last month that the couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, would be shot by the end of February if they were not paid a $3million ransom.

The Chandlers are being held in rugged areas between the coastal village of Elhur and the small inland town of Amara but are moved every 48 hours.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has already insisted the Government will not become involved in any ransom payments.

A Foreign Office spokesman last night said: ‘We are doing everything we can to help secure their release.

'We remain in regular contact with the family and are providing support. We call for the safe and swift release of Paul and Rachel.'

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How events unfolded after the Chandlers were captured aboard their yacht

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One of the Somali pirate crews that operate off the country's coast and regularly attack shipping. This particular group seized 29 ships in 2008 and earned £6million in ransom money

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Mr Chandler is examined by the doctor who visited with the video journalist: He and his wife are being held in separate locations in rugged countryside between the coastal village of Elhur and the small town of Amara


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Mr Chandler, 60, pleaded for help and said conditions they were being held in were 'difficult'


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Mrs Chandler being examined by the Somali doctor Abdi Mohamed Helmi.Disorientated: Rachel Chandler looked frail and weak in the video footage. She and her husband have been held for three months



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With guns pointed at their backs, Paul and Rachel Chandler are forced to beg for mercy in a video released by their Somali kidnappers three months ago


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The Chandlers looking healthy in Kerala, India - the couple were on a round-the-world trip when captured by pirates
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Somali pirates hijack two ships off East African coast-Somali pirates seize two more vessels


The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates

Somali pirates have captured two ships with 45 crew off the East African coast, officials say.

A UK-flagged chemical tanker, the St James Park, was reportedly captured in the Gulf of Aden on Monday while on its way to Thailand from Spain.

Its 26 crew hail from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Georgia, India, Turkey and the Philippines.

The Navios Apollon, a Panamanian-flagged Greek cargo ship with 19 crew, was hijacked north of the Seychelles.

The 50,000-tonne carrier - which had been sailing from the US state of Florida to India - was boarded on Monday by 10 men in speedboats, according to the Greek coastguard.

Pirate attacks have been common off the Somali coast and international navies have been deployed to counter them.

'No contact'

The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates, said the International Maritime Bureau

The tanker, which was carrying a cargo of chemicals used to make plastics, had changed course and was now heading towards the northern coast of Somalia, said Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.

"It is expected to arrive there later this evening," Mr Mwangura told AFP news agency.

The ship's owner-operators told the BBC they were working for "the early and safe release of our crew members on board".

A spokesman for Zodiac Maritime Agencies said the company had had no contact with the St James Park or the pirates but was in contact with the European naval force in the area.

The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world.

Correspondents say the upsurge in piracy in the region is a consequence of the failure to find a solution to Somalia's continuing political disarray.

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Friday, December 4, 2009

Somali suicide bomber detonate bom inside doc graduation ceremony.Murder 23 people.



Most of the dead were reported to have been students


Al-Shabab is accused by some of being a proxy for al-Qaeda in East Africa


A bomber dressed as a woman carried out the attack at a medical student graduation ceremony in Mogadishu


Hundreds of people were gathered inside the Shamo hotel in the capital when the bomb went off


The international community condemned the attack, which dealt a huge blow to Somalia's feeble transitional government





Somalia's hardline Islamist insurgents denied Friday that they carried out a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu that killed at least 23 people, including three government ministers.

A bomber dressed as a woman carried out the attack at a medical student graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, which also killed three journalists and left dozens of people injured.

The international community condemned the attack, which dealt an unprecedented blow to Somalia's feeble transitional government, and President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed blamed it on the Islamist insurgency.

But the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement and its Hezb al-Islam allies, who have waged a relentless guerrilla war against the government since May, denied any involvement in the bombing.

"We have heard about that tragedy from the media. On behalf of the Shebab, we are not in anyway involved in that incident," top spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.

Hezb al-Islam leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys condemned the attack, charging the suicide bomber must have been a foreigner.

"I condemn this attack, which is the work of the enemy, and I send my condolences to the family members of those who were killed," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

"This was the work of enemies who want to destroy Somalia's intelligentsia and create a hostile atmosphere in which Somalis cannot reconcile," Aweys added.

Although not the deadliest attack in Mogadishu, the suicide bombing sent shockwaves across the civilian population, the government and the international community.

Hundreds of people were gathered inside the Shamo hotel for a rare celebration in a country which has experienced 18 years of almost uninterrupted civil chaos.

The blast ripped through the crowd, killing the ministers of education, higher education and health.

A medic at Mogadishu's Medina hospital said that, in addition to the dead counted on Thursday, three wounded had since died of their injuries and one more civilian victim was found, raising the death toll to 23.

Three journalists were also among the victims, bringing to nine the number of reporters killed in the restive Horn of Africa country this year alone. An AFP photographer sustained slight injuries.

"We were waiting outside the conference room when there was a huge explosion. I found myself on the ground in the middle of the smoke and screaming," the photographer said.

"I went to get my camera, and that's when I saw the bodies of the three ministers."

Shebab and Hezb al-Islam have so far focused their armed effort on attacking government troops and African Union peacekeepers, who they accuse of spearheading a Western-backed Christian crusade in Somalia.

In his reaction to the bombing, the Shebab spokesman insinuated that the attack was the result of quarrels within the transitional government, caused notably by the reported imminent sacking of senior security officials.

A joint statement from the European Union, the InterGovernmental Authority on Development, a regional body, the League of Arab States, the United Nations and the United States condemned the attack as "cowardly acts of terrorism".

"The horrific attack is another demonstration of the extremists' complete disregard for human life. The fact this bombing targeted graduating medical students - the future doctors of Somalia - is particularly egregious," the statement said.




Thursday's explosion went off in a crowded meeting room at the hotel, where hundreds of people had gathered for a graduation ceremony of medical students.

Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said the male bomber had been dressed in women's clothing, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes".

Officials said Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow were all killed.

Sports Minister Saleban Olad Roble was critically wounded and remains in hospital.

At least three journalists were also among the dead but most of those killed were reported to have been students. More than 60 people were injured.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan, who was at the scene, said it had been a "shocking, terrible scene".

Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has described the attack as a "national disaster".

He described the victims as "dear citizens... unjustly assassinated while carrying out their duty to the nation".

The hotel is often used by the few foreigners - aid workers, journalists and diplomats - who still visit Mogadishu.

Somalia has had no effective government for almost 20 years.

The blast happened in one of the small parts of the city controlled by the weak UN-backed government, just 1km (0.62 miles) from the K4 junction, where the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, Amisom, has a base.

Amisom's acting head, Wafula Wamunyini, said the blast was "intended to intimidate and blackmail" government.

But in a statement, the AU said it would "not deter the resolve and determination of the African Union to support the people of Somalia in their quest for peace and reconciliation".

The students had been graduating from Benadir University, which was set up in 2002 to train doctors to replace those who had fled overseas or been killed in the civil war.
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Friday, November 20, 2009

British yacht couple captured by Somali gunmen make desperate plea.Rachel Chandler Paul Chandler captured by somali pirates to be killed within days


Captured: The moment the Lynn Rival was boarded by pirates off east Africa

Video: Rachel and her husband Paul, who were kidnapped by Somali pirates last month, begged for their lives as they warned they could be killed within days

Plea: Mr Chandler appeared healthier than his wife but was clearly showing signs of exhaustion from the ordeal

Terror: Rachel Chandler trembles as pirates menace her with a machine gun and grenade launcher



With an assault rifle pointed at her head, this was the dramatic moment the British woman kidnapped by Somali pirates pleaded for her life last night.

Surrounded by their captors, Rachel Chandler warned that she and her husband Paul could be killed within days.

She said the kidnappers were ‘losing patience’ and urged the British Government to open talks on a ransom.

Mrs Chandler said: ‘We are feeling very much under threat now. These people won’t hesitate to take our lives.’

Wearing a white robe and appearing frail, she went on: ‘Our captors are getting very impatient that no one has been in touch or entered into negotiations.

‘So we ask the Government and people of Britain and their families to do whatever they can to enter into negotiations to buy back our lives. We are under threat and we are told that we will not be fed and given water. So we are very concerned about the future.’

The 55-year-old added: 'We are also told that there is a terrorist cell, or a fanatic cell, searching for us.’

The couple were seized 29 days ago as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania on their 38ft yacht.

Their appeal for help came in a video shot by the kidnappers in the African bush on Wednesday and released to Channel 4 News last night.

Mr Chandler, 59, who was showing signs of exhaustion, said: ‘So far we have been provided with adequate food, water and facilities, and are unharmed and in reasonable physical health. But mentally we are under great stress and threatened.

‘Our kidnappers are losing patience. We have been threatened that there is a terrorist group at large in this country looking for us.

‘We are concerned these people will lose patience and I have no doubt they will not hesitate to kill us in a week or so.

‘So please, somebody get in touch otherwise we are just sleepwalk to a tragic end.’

Channel 4 said it had broadcast the video with the consent of the Chandlers’ family.

Last night a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are aware of the video. Any such video will be distressing for the family.’

He said that the couple were innocent tourists and the Government sought their immediate release, but that ‘substantive concessions’ would not be made to hostage takers.

The video was released as questions mounted over why a Royal Navy vessel armed with cannon and machine guns just 50ft away as the couple were kidnapped did not immediately intervene to save them and why the Ministry of Defence seemingly covered up the episode.

The kidnappers had previously demanded a £4million ransom for the couple and said they would ‘burn their bones’ if there was any attempt to free them.

The Chandlers, who have no children, were heading for Tanzania, via the Amirante Islands on their yacht the Lynn Rival.

The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were taken hostage by gunmen in the Indian Ocean early on October 23. Pirates boarded their yacht as they slept and diverted them to Somalia.

Six days later in a phone call to ITV, Mr Chandler said: ‘I was asleep and men with guns came on board.’

He told how they had been moved to a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been seized by the pirates, and then moved to another ship anchored off the east coast of Somalia.

The following day the ransom demand was made in a phone call to the BBC. In the call one of the pirates said: ‘If they do not harm us, we will not harm them - we only need a little amount of seven million dollars.’

The same day Mrs Chandler’s brother Stephen Collett made a direct plea to the pirates, saying: ‘If you release them it would show your compassionate nature and it would be positive to everyone. Thank you.’

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Somali pirates say British couple taken to land-Somali pirates: Western boats 'loot' Somali fish


n this undated photo made available by the family, shows Paul Chandler, who went missing with his wife Rachel when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday Oct. 29, 2009 found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.



In this undated photo made available by the family, Paul and Rachel Chandler, who went missing when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, are seen at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.


In this undated photo made available by the family, shows Paul Chandler, who went missing with his wife Rachel when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday Oct. 29, 2009 found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.


In this undated photo made available by the family, shows Paul Chandler, who went missing with his wife Rachel when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday Oct. 29, 2009 found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.




Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are "looting" Somalia's fish-rich waters.

Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, says Western fishing vessels "harass" local fishermen and destroy their nets. Gadaf spoke to The Associated Press by satellite phone.

Gadaf says the British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed.

Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The country's prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech last week that many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters and have pushed formerly profitable Somali fishermen into the pirate trade.



Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters, a pirate spokesman said Saturday.

Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, said the group holding the couple hostage off Somalia's coast was made up of "voluntary guards" — not pirates.

"The Western forces continue to loot our natural resources. They continue to harass local fishermen and destroy their fishing nets, so we want them to taste the consequence," Gadaf said by satellite phone from the coastal town of Haradhere.

The British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed, Gadaf said. They will be released once the ransom is paid, he said.

The Chandlers were headed to Tanzania in their boat, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent Oct. 23. The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday, and both have been in sporadic contact with the British media since.

Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The prime minister of Somalia's transitional government, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech Wednesday that many pirates are former fishermen "responding to the loss and disappearance of their livelihoods."

"Many of these pirates were once profitable fisherman and would be so again given the chance," he said at the London-based Chatham House think tank.

"I shall not name names, but suffice to say many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters," he said. "We estimate that the value of the fish being taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It is wholly unacceptable for these countries, many of whom claim they want to help Somalia, to turn a blind eye to this theft. Particularly when that theft robs thousands of Somali people of a way out of poverty and a way out of piracy," Sharmarke said.

Rachel Chandler told her brother in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News on Friday that the pirates were "hospitable people," a message that Sharmarke underscored in his London remarks.

British officials held a meeting on the hostage situation Friday in the government's crisis briefing room. The Foreign Office said a team from across several government departments was involved. Both the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense declined to comment on whether any potential rescue was under consideration.

Pirate attacks have increased the last several weeks after the recent end of the monsoon season. An international armada is patrolling the region to try to stop the attacks.

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