EUNAVFOR's joint operations center in Spain said it received a warning on Thursday about a hijacked ship called the Ruen, about 500 nautical miles east of Socotra Island, off the coast of Somalia.
The Ruen, which flies a Maltese flag, appears to have been hijacked by pirates since December 15. Reuters quoted a source in Somalia's breakaway Puntland region as saying: "Six of my men have hijacked a ship and they are taking it to the coast of eastern Puntland."
Somali Coast Guard personnel patrol the Red Sea on November 30. Photo: AP
EUNAVFOR said the Spanish warship Victoria had been dispatched to the scene "to gather further information and assess further actions".
“EUNAVFOR remains vigilant to this and other recent piracy-related incidents in its area of operations, the northwestern Indian Ocean and the Red Sea,” it said, adding that it was coordinating with the wider international Combined Maritime Force.
Earlier on Friday, Britain's maritime agency UKMTO said it had received a report from a ship's security officer that the crew no longer had control of a vessel currently heading to Somalia.
Ruen is managed by Bulgaria's Navigation Maritime Bulgare, according to data on the public shipping database Equasis.
If confirmed, it would be the first successful hijacking involving Somali pirates since 2017 when an international naval crackdown prevented a series of seizures in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
Mai Anh (according to Reuters)
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