International Bunkering Company Ltd. (IBCO) is working with its insurer, the Saudi IACI Cooperative Insurance Company (SALAMA), to facilitate negotiations with the pirates.
However, senior Sri Lankan officials have expressed concerns over the fate of 13 Sri Lankan crew members held hostage on board the ill-fated ship, which was hijacked as it sailed through the Gulf of Aden.
“The IBCO has already taken up the matter with the insurance company, while pirates are in touch with negotiators through their satellite phones from the east African coast,” senior IBCO official Munir Ahmed Gondal told Arab News on Wednesday. IBCO also clarified that the ship, called Al-Nisr Al-Saudi, was not an oil tanker, as the company is not involved in the crude business. It also said the barge was sailing from Yawatahama, Japan.
IBCO said it only found about the hijacking on March 2. Gondal said that the company would release details of the crew members soon. Sri Lankan Consul General Sabarullah Khan said that his government has instructed him to do everything possible to save the crew members.
Khan said he has received the list of the Sri Lankan crew members from the company and the Jeddah-based consulate was also coordinating with the Kenya-based mission and IBCO. The consulate will shortly provide a report to Colombo, he added.
Khan said the pirates have provided assurances that they will not harm the crew members. “We are concerned about our workers and we are ready to cooperate with all parties to settle the matter as early as possible,” said Sarath Kumara, minister at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh on Thursday.
The Al-Nisr Al-Saudi was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on Monday. The 14-member crew include 13 Sri Lankans and one Greek.
The Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Kenya, Jayantha Dissanayake, said the vessel was now in the region of Gurey, off the coast of Somalia. The number of hijacking incidents involving Somali pirates is increasing. On Thursday the 2,100 ton Spanish fishing vessel Albacan was attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean.
The Albacan was halfway between the Seychelles and the Kenyan coast when it was approached by two pirate skiffs.
In another incident, Somali pirates let a Singaporean chemical tanker go after a ransom was delivered by parachute last Friday. In addition, the Taiwanese tuna boat Win Far 161, was also hijacked by Somali pirates, returned to Kaohsiung Harbor in southern Taiwan last Thursday after 10 months, minus two of its crew who had died in captivity.
Somali pirates were held responsible for 217 piracy attempts, with 47 vessels successfully seized and 867 crew members taken hostage last year alone. Piracy has become a lucrative business in the high seas surrounding the Horn of Africa.
