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Yacht crew taken hostage by pirates off Somali coast

French authorities were working yesterday to free a luxury cruise yacht and its 30-member crew taken hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

“The defense and foreign affairs ministries are working to act as quickly as possible, I hope in the minutes or hours to come, to try to obtain the release of the hostages,” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said late on Friday.

“We have relatively large military means in the area,” he said.

The 32-cabin, four-deck Ponant was sailing between Somalia and Yemen when it was boarded by pirates on Friday.

The three-masted yacht was carrying 30 crew members but had no passengers on board at the time, a French military spokesman said.

“As far as we know, no shots have been fired,” said Christophe Prazuck, the spokesman.

French military forces in the area and a Djibouti-based US-led multinational force, Combined Task Force 150, “were able to confirm the situation and are following its evolution,” Prazuck said.

SAILORS TAKE WARNING

Pirate attacks are frequent off Somalia’s 3,700km coast, prompting the International Maritime Bureau to advise sailors not to come closer than 200 nautical miles (370km) to its shore.

Somalia, which lies at the mouth of the Red Sea on a major trade route between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal, has not had a functional government since the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The French navy has been called on in recent months to escort World Food Program boats through Somali waters, after two of the agency’s boats were stolen.

French shipping group CMA-CGM confirmed one of its boats had been seized in the Gulf of Aden on its way from the Indian Ocean’s Seychelles islands to the Mediterranean, and that a “majority” of the crew were French.

“The ship is indeed the Ponant, property of the CMA-CGM group. We were informed that there were pirates on board,” a company spokesman said.

The group said it was “working closely with the foreign ministry. The French authorities are handling the situation.”

It did not give further information “to avoid endangering its crew taken hostage.”

‘MARITIME MAFIA’

While Somali pirates have mostly targeted cargo vessels, some 600 sea-borne European tourists narrowly avoided being boarded in November 2005.

“You’re looking at a powerful maritime mafia,” said Olivier Hallaoui of French security specialists Secopex.

The Ponant, equipped with lounges, bar and restaurant, had been due to host a cruise between Egypt and Malta on April 21 and April 22, its owner said.
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