Pirates: Indian Navy frees cargo ship in Arabian Sea

The Indian Navy says it has freed a cargo ship that was hijacked three months ago from the control of Somali pirates. The Navy has the freighter flying the Maltese flag MV Ruen brought under control on Saturday, she announced on the X platform. The 35 pirates on board surrendered and 17 crew members were rescued unharmed.

An Indian warship therefore has the MV Ruen in the Arabian Sea, 2,600 kilometers from the Indian coast. It had previously tracked the freighter for 40 hours. The pirates initially shot at the warship, but surrendered after resisting. They hijacked the freighter on December 23, 2023.

Increase in pirate attacks off Somalia’s coast

According to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, seven crew members of the freighter came from Bulgaria, nine from Myanmar and one from Angola. The Bulgarian shipping company Navibulgar said their liberation was a “great success” for the global shipping industry.

Somali pirates had already hijacked a freighter on December 14th and… Somalia controlled, another freighter was hijacked on January 3rd. Two days later the Indian Navy reported of its liberation. At the end of January, it said it had freed the crews of two fishing boats from Somali pirates within 36 hours.

EU forces relocated north due to Houthi attacks

The coast off Somalia was once the scene of frequent pirate attacks, the number of which has fallen significantly as a result of the EU Atalanta mission, which has been running since 2008. However, many naval forces were moved from the coast of Somalia to more northern waters after the Yemen’s Houthi militia has begun attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. India’s navy and the Seychelles naval force remain active off the Somali coast.

The Houthis are shelling freighters in the Red Sea in response to the war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. Previously, up to 15 percent of world trade passed through this route. Since then, many shipping companies have had their ships take a detour of thousands of kilometers via the Horn of Africa. However, the Houthis recently announced to also want to attack ships with missiles on this route.