A French warship on Sunday foiled attempts by Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people, the French president’s office said.
“Three days after a French vessel thwarted an attack on a Panamanian cargo ship,” the frigate Jean de Vienne conducted a “decisive action” against “two new attacks” it said in a statement.
“The 19 Somali pirates who tried to seize the two boats were intercepted,” it added, saying they carried weapons, ammunition and material for boarding ships.
“They will be transferred to the Somali authorities,” it added.
The French defense ministry said pirates attempted to attack a Croatian and a Panamanian ship and that French forces seized assault rifles, two rocket launchers and more than 1,000 liters of oil.
On Thursday, a French warship thwarted an attack by pirates, presumed to be Somalis, on a Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel. They arrested eight suspects to be handed over to the Somali authorities. In October, the French navy handed over nine suspected pirates to the authorities in the breakaway state of Puntland in the northeast of the country.
Another 12 suspected pirates are currently being held in France. They were arrested during two separate operations to free the crew of two French yachts in April and September of last year.
Somalia, which has been ravaged by civil war since 1991, has become a global hotspot for piracy in recent years.
An Islamist militia that briefly controlled most of Somalia in 2006 had all but rooted out piracy but attacks surged again after the hardline movement was ousted by an Ethiopian troop invasion.
More than 100 attacks occurred in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of the lawless Horn of Africa country last year alone.
The pirates have been undeterred by the presence of foreign navies patrolling in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in a bid to secure one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
Meanwhile, two foreign journalists — a Briton and a Spaniard — have been released in good health after nearly six weeks in captivity in Somalia, officials said.
The journalists, reporter Colin Freeman, 39, of the Sunday Telegraph and freelance photographer Jose Cendon, 34, were working on a piracy story when they were kidnapped on Nov. 26.
The Sunday Telegraph’s publisher confirmed the two journalists had been freed on Sunday.
“This is wonderful news and we are delighted that the two journalists will soon be reunited with their families, friends and colleagues,” Telegraph Media Group said in a statement in London.
The company would not say whether a ransom had been paid.
In a story published on its Web site, the newspaper quoted Freeman as saying the pair “are absolutely fine ... We’ve absolutely no problems at all ether physically or mentally.”
“We survived on rice, goat meat and Rothmans,” Freeman said, referring to the cigarettes. “I gave up smoking in 1992 and somehow decided now would be a good time to start up again.”
The newspaper said the men were held in caves in the mountains and moved occasionally as their kidnappers tried to dodge rival gangs or the authorities.
Foreigners, journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransoms in the Horn of Africa nation. The Associated Press did not previously identify the two journalists out of concern for their safety.
Somali officials have said the men were abducted as they left their hotel for the airport to leave Somalia, likely by local gunmen or their bodyguards.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry said that Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos spoke by phone with Cendon and confirmed to the photographer’s family that he was released and is in good health.
Two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian, kidnapped near the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in August are still being held.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS