US destroyer nears Ukraine Ship & Somali pirates

Pirates in small boats sail close to the MV Faina (Photo: US Navy)

A US Navy destroyer has made visual contact with a Ukrainian ship which was seized by pirates last week and is now moored off the Somali coast.

There is no indication that the USS Howard intends to approach the ship, which is carrying 33 battle tanks destined for Kenya’s government.

The pirates’ ransom demand for the ship and its 21 crew has fallen from $35m to $20m (£10.9m), their spokesman said.

The ship’s crew consists of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and a Latvian.

U.S. officials said the ship reported being surrounded by three small boats of pirates while sailing 250 miles off the coast of Somalia.

The vessel Faina, flying a Belize flag, was headed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa after departing Nikolayev, Ukraine, according to Lt. Col. Konstantin Sadilov, spokesman for the Ukrainian defense ministry. He said it was seized by pirates Thursday not far from its destination.

According to the defense ministry, the ship was carrying 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms.

The weapons were sold to Kenya by the Ukraine, said Ukraine Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. He said that the entire shipment was contracted and carried out by Ukrspetzexport, Ukraine’s state arms exports monopoly, and that it would know better exactly what was on board.

The ship deliberately took a route far from the coast of Somalia, where pirates are known to operate, in an attempt to avoid them, the minister said.

The Kiev-based source told Interfax on Saturday that radio contact was made with the ship’s captain, who reported that the crew has come down with malaria. However, the source said the claim might have been an attempt to hasten negotiations.

Ukraine’s anti-terrorist center in its capital, Kiev, is analyzing the situation and consulting with military and security experts, Sadilov told CNN. Ukrainian diplomats are also working in Kenya to resolve the situation, he said.

A man on the ship also told the BBC that one of the crew members had died.

The man, who the pirates said was the captain of the MV Faina, was speaking via a satellite phone handed to him by one of the pirates.

He said the dead sailor was Russian and had died as the result of an illness. The report could not be confirmed by independent sources.

He also said the other crew members were fine and that he could see three ships about a mile away, including one carrying a US flag.

International concern

In an earlier interview with the BBC, a spokesman for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, Lt Nathan Christensen, said the USS Howard was within 8km (5 miles) from the Ukrainian vessel, but refused to say whether an intervention was likely.

If we are attacked, we will defend ourselves until the last one of us dies
Sugule Ali
Spokesman for the pirates

“The USS Howard… [is] currently on station, in visual contact and is monitoring the situation there,” he said.

“The motor vessel is anchored off the Somali coast, near the town of Hobyo, along with, actually, a couple of other pirated vessels that are also anchored in that location.”

Lt Christensen said the USS Howard had been in contact with MV Faina using VHF radio, and that negotiations were continuing between the pirates and its owners.

He said the ship’s cargo of Russian-made 72T battle tanks made it a particularly worrying situation.

“We’re concerned that this might end up in the wrong hands, such as terrorists or violence extremists,” he said.

One of the pirates, Sugule Ali, claiming to be speaking on their behalf, later told reporters via satellite phone that they wanted a ransom and “nothing else”.

Map

“We need $20m for the safe release of the ship and the crew,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

“If we are attacked, we will defend ourselves until the last one of us dies.”

On Saturday, another of the pirates, Januna Ali Jama, told the BBC they would not release the MV Faina unless a ransom of $35m (£19m) was paid.

Later, a spokesman for the Kenyan government said they had not received any credible demands for a ransom to release the ship.

The waters off the coast of Somalia are considered some of the world’s most dangerous.

‘Big business’

Ukraine has confirmed that the tanks and “a substantial quantity of ammunition” were aboard the MV Faina.

The ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing towards the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Authorities in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they are powerless to confront the pirates, who regularly hold ships for ransom at the port of Eyl.

USS Howard

The USS Howard is one of several vessels in the area

Last week, France circulated a draft UN resolution urging states to deploy naval vessels and aircraft to combat such piracy.

France, which has troops in nearby Djibouti and also participates in a multi-national naval force patrol in the area, has intervened twice to release French sailors kidnapped by pirates.

Commandos freed two people whose boat was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month and in April, six arrested pirates were handed over to the French authorities for trial.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 17 years and has suffered from continual civil strife.