MOGADISHU: Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi Aramco supertanker demanded a $25 million ransom yesterday amid calls for tougher action to end threats to one of the world’s key maritime routes.
As global frustration built and a major shipping company ordered some of its vessels to avoid the Gulf of Aden, the pirates set a 10-day deadline for the ransom payment.
“We are demanding $25 million from the owners of the tanker. We do not want longterm discussions to resolve the matter,” a pirate who identified himself as Mohamed Sayeed said from the ship.
“The owners have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous,” Said told AFP from the ship now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harad-heere, without elaborating.
Seized at the weekend in the Indian Ocean some 500 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya, the Sirius Star was loaded to capacity with two million barrels of oil. It is the biggest vessel to be seized by pirates so far.
After the International Maritime Bureau described the situation as “out of control,” Arab Red Sea states meeting in Cairo yesterday pledged cooperation to end the threat — but offered few specifics.
Russia announced it would send more warships to combat piracy in the treacherous waters.
Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, the top commander of the Russian Navy, said: “After the Neustrashimy, ships from other fleets of the Russian Navy will head to the region,” referring to a frigate sent to the area in September. Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, meanwhile, called for an international ground military operation in the region to crush piracy and to boost sea patrols that are yielding thin results.
“It’s up to the European Union, NATO and others to launch a coastal land operation to eliminate the pirates,” Rogozin told AFP, insisting that “naval action alone will not be enough to liquidate the threat of piracy.”
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the world to firmly fight the “scourge of hostage taking.”
In a sign of the havoc being wreaked by the pirates, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, Danish group A.P. Moller-Maersk, ordered some of its vessels to avoid the Gulf of Aden.
“Vessels without adequate speed or freeboard will for the time being avoid the Gulf of Aden and seek alternative routing south of the Cape of Good Hope and east of Madagascar,” the company said.
Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein warned that piracy will rage unless the world helps restore a functional government in Somalia, which collapsed after the 1991 ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre. “The problems of pirates will only be resolved when the international community helps Somalia to stand on her feet,” Hussein told reporters in Mogadishu.
At the Cairo talks, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said his country would consider all possibilities. Egypt’s economy heavily relies on revenue from tourism and maritime traffic through the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
