KENYA: British frigate escorts four food aid ships through Somalia's pirate infested waters

Record ID: 361581

  • Title: KENYA: British frigate escorts four food aid ships through Somalia's pirate infested waters
  • Date: 27th January 2009
  • Summary: MOMBASA, KENYA (JANUARY 26, 2009) (REUTERS) BRITISH FRIGATE AT PORT BRITISH SAILORS LOAD WORLD FOOD PROGRAM (WFP) FOOD ONTO SHIP BRITISH FRIGATE COMMANDER, MARTIN SIMPSON WALKS INTO ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH FRIGATE COMMANDER, MARTIN SIMPSON, SAYING: "As far as I am aware there hasn't been a recent successful piracy attack, so I would like to think we are making
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA8XO88W5HAHL7FNQ1PKQAS3PVD
  • Story Text: British frigate escorts four WFP (World Food Program) ships to Somalia as part of ongoing EU anti-piracy mission.
    A British navy frigate left the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Monday (January 26), part of a European Union anti-piracy mission, escorting four ships carrying relief food to crisis-hit Somalia.
    Chaos and violence onshore in the Horn of Africa country have produced a surge of piracy around its waters, pushing up insurance costs in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Pirate gangs have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms and foreign navies have rushed to the area in defence of merchant shipping.
    Somali pirates attacked roughly 100 ships last year, but in December the EU agreed to launch an anti-piracy operation off Somalia's coast, involving warships and aircraft from several nations.
    "As far as I am aware there hasn't been a recent successful piracy attack, so I would like to think we are making a difference," Martin Simpson, commander of the British frigate, said. "And we will continue the operation until the 28th February when we will start heading back to the UK," he added.
    Somalia has been mired in civil war since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre. And a two-year-old rebellion by Islamist insurgents has killed more than 16,000 civilians, uprooting one million others.
    The four ships are carrying food relief for the World Food Programme, part of the United Nations which says Somalia is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
    "This afternoon, we are sailing to protect four merchant vessels one of which we are taking to Mogadishu, two to Bossaso and one to Berbera," Simpson said.
    Dozens of ships are still being held by the pirates after a surge in attacks at sea this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia. Among the captured vessels is a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying some 30 Soviet-era tanks, the MV Faina.
    Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year on their way to and from the Suez Canal.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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