- Title: SOMALIA: Bodies of pirates killed by French navy return to shore
- Date: 14th April 2009
- Summary: COAST OF SOMALIA, SOMALIA (APRIL 13, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS PUNTLAND POLICE SPEEDBOAT APPROACHES FRENCH NAVY SHIP RESCUED FRENCH YACHT FRENCH NAVY SHIP BASASO, SOMALIA (APRIL 13, 2009) (REUTERS) DEAD PIRATE BODIES BROUGHT TO BOSASO PORT ABDULAHI AHMED JAMA, PUNTLAND MINISTER OF INTERIOR, WRITING SOMALI FLAG SOUNDBITE (English) PUNTLAND INTERIOR MINISTER, ABDULAHI A
- Embargoed: 29th April 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Somalia
- Country: Somalia
- Reuters ID: LVA3HCQ0JJWUA0M2K5CUNVYHAKYP
- Story Text: The bodies of pirates killed by French forces were returned to land on Monday (April 13).
A French hostage was killed and four others were freed on Friday (April 10) when French forces attacked the five pirates on the yacht Tanit.
Two pirates were shot dead during the military assault and three were captured.
Pirates seized the sailing boat Tanit, carrying two couples and a 3-year-old boy at the time, far from the coast of Somalia on April 4.
French Defence Minister Herve Morin said the father of the child, Florent Lemacon, died during the rescue mission, which lasted a few minutes.
A military official said elite forces shot dead two pirates who were on deck when they stormed the boat.
Lemacon had been in the cabin at the time and it was not clear if he was killed in the crossfire or deliberately shot by one of his captives. The four French survivors were unharmed and put on a navy vessel bound for Djibouti.
France has taken a leading role in international efforts to halt rampant hijackings off Somalia and its forces have captured at least 60 pirates since April 2008, bringing several of them to Paris for eventual trial.
The French navy made contact with the pirates and decided to launch the rescue bid after the gang refused to accept an offer of a ransom and tried instead to sail towards the coast.
It was the third time in a year that the French military had intervened after a French-registered yacht was captured, and the first time a hostage has died.
"Well actually this threat I mean, anybody who suffers something will threaten always that he will avenge something. I hope they won't do that because this is the first incidence ever, there have never been any incidents ever where they treated.. the hostages very badly, always in peace,"
Abdulahi Ahmed Jama, Minister of Interior for the self-declared autonomou region of Puntland, which is the area from which many pirates operate.
Chloe and Florent Lemacon left France with their son Colin last July aboard the Tanit, writing about their adventures in a blog -- http://tanit.over-blog.fr/.
They picked up another couple along the way and were heading towards the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The French Foreign Ministry said earlier this week the French navy had urged the Lemacons not to sail through the Gulf of Aden but that the warning had gone unheeded.
The Lemacons mentioned the risk posed by pirates in their blog, but shrugged off the threat.
"The danger exists but the ocean remains huge. The pirates must not destroy our dream," they said in a post from January. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None