Somalia: Pirates Release Yacht Hostages

Somali pirates release cruise yacht hostages, as reported here:

The 30 hostages held on a tourist yacht by pirates off the coast of Somalia have been released, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday.

A statement from Sarkozy's office said he had thanked the French army and other French agencies "that allowed a quick end" to the hostage-taking.

The statement did not elaborate on the role of the French military but said the release occurred "without incident."

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France would organize the hostages' return "as soon as possible" and was welcoming the "happy ending" to the standoff.

More info from here:

The foreign ministry said the crew, 22 of whom were French, would be repatriated as soon as possible.

The Philippine foreign ministry said some of the crew were Filipinos and that all were safe.

"They are still on the boat, but the plan is for them to sail to Djibouti and from there, they will be airlifted to Paris," Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos told Reuters in Manila.

"We were told the French Navy was escorting the yacht to safety. We hope the Filipinos could be reunited with their families by next week."

More news is expected later in the day.

Somali Pirates: Money Men

A refresher in the Somali pirates titled Yacht raid reveals hi-tech Somali pirate network:

The ship's owner, the Compagnie Générale Maritime, has been assured that the crew members, including six women, are being treated well. The Somali "marines" have a reputation for courteous treatment of their hostages, so long as they are confident that a ransom will be paid. Andrew Mwangura, president of a seamen's aid association in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, said: "The size of the ransom depends on the value of the ship, its proprietor and the nationality of the crew. In this case, they will ask for a fortune, millions of dollars, and then lower their demands and everything will go well."

Mr Mwangura said there were four, rival groups of pirates operating from the Somali coast but Le Ponant was almost certainly in the hands of the Somali "marines".

They are the best organised," he said. "They have an almost military structure and training, plenty of weapons and boats, and excellent communications."

A French journalist, Gwen Le Gouil, was held for eight days by the "marines" in December. He said they were "former fishermen, who have converted to illicit operations of various kinds, including hostage-taking and trafficking in people, money and archeological remains. They have no particular political allegiance. Only money counts as far as they are concerned."

Supplies are being provided to the pirates for "humanitarian" reasons, it is reported here:

Fresh supplies been delivered to hostages and kidnappers on a luxury yacht held for the last six days by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a local rights group said Wednesday.

"We have provided water and food, which the boat needed, and we will continue to give them what we can," Mohamud Abdulkadir 'John' of the Somali Tribal Rights Watch (STRW) organisation told AFP.

At the pirates' request, the 32-cabin Ponant was given the essentials it needs for them to bed in during lengthy ransom negotiations.
***
"The pirates asked for food and water and we gave them what they wanted on humanitarian grounds," the representative said. "For now, we have nothing to do with this business beyond a humanitarian involvement.

"The hostages are not ill and they have not been threatened by their kidnappers. We will continue to monitor their humanitarian needs," the man added.

Another member of the non-governmental organisation told AFP that the abducted Ponant crew was "in good spirits".

This "rights group" language translates into "Don't kill us for helping the pirates" in my view.

Meanwhile, a cart gets put before the horse in a look at the success of the World Food Program revived shipping program, set out here:

Pirates who hijacked ships delivering food aid off the Coast of Somalia could have been kept at bay, thanks to a United Nations Security Council resolution.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and Somalia are upbeat over smooth delivery of relief food since last November after the UN introduced military escorts for ships to the war-ravaged nation.

Last week, military chiefs celebrated the success of food deliveries to Somalia in Mombasa where the Danish handed over the mantle to protect WFP ships to the Dutch.

Sorry, the UN Resolution didn't stop diddly-squat. It is those warships that put an end to the lucrative racket of capturing and ransoming the WFP ships over and over again. Providing some regularly scheduled voluntary military escorted convoys for some of the more vulnerable ships and yachts transiting through the Gulf of Aden would slow down the northern Somali pirates, too.

UPDATE: More video:





Yes, that's French.

Somali Pirates: French President Sarkozy hosts cruise yacht hostage families

Reported here:

President Nicolas Sarkozy met Tuesday with the families of 22 French crew members held hostage on a luxury yacht for the last five days by pirates off the coast of Somalia, an Elysee official said.

Some 40 members of the hostages' families arrived at the French presidential Elysee palace just after 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), leaving 90 minutes later without making any comment to an AFP reporter waiting at the scene.

As the families were with Sarkozy, the 32-cabin yacht Ponant remained moored in waters near a village, Garaad, on the eastern Somali coast, north of Mogadishu by the self-proclaimed autonomous region of Puntland.
***
A French naval warship was maintaining close surveillance with troops from the French gendarmerie's elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit stationed in nearby Djibouti.

While Sarkozy led international efforts to liberate the kidnapped sailors the Philippine foreign ministry said Tuesday that the crew also included six Filipinos.

That leaves four among the total reported number of 32 not clearly identified. Initial information after the boat was captured indicated the non-French crew were Ukrainian.

All the crew members were "in good physical condition," the Philippine foreign ministry statement said, adding that there had been no demands made by the pirates at that time.

A senior official said Manila was in close contact with French authorities.

Meanwhile, two separate international piracy specialists said they were sure the group responsible for holding the Ponant were from a local gang known as the "Somali Marines."

In the port of Mombasa, the president of a Kenyan-based anti-piracy centre said the gang is structured along formal army lines.

"They are the best organised group," Andrew Mwangura told AFP. "They have a military background and training, with a very good communication system, lots of weapons and boats, very powerful radios and satellites.

"They are like an army: they have an operations commander, whose job is to attack the ship. Another officer is in charge of guarding the boat. Another is in charge of supplying the food and the kit."

Canada-based journalist Daniel Sekulich, who has spent months in the area researching a book on its pirates, said even if another group originally boarded the ship, it may have been passed on subsequently to Somalia's most feared outfit.

"There are four main groups based in Somalia," Sekulich added. "All have ties to warlords, and are hijacking vessels for ransom.

"With the position where the ship was taken, my guess is that it was taken by another group and then taken to the Somali Marines, because they were afraid that the French navy would attack them."

Sekulich said Somali pirates do not do business themselves, but share out ransoms with warlords who offer protection and businessmen who handle negotiations.

"I think it will be resolved without a gunfight," added the Toronto-based writer.

"A commando attack might look good in a Hollywood movie, but the reality is that in a confined space like this cruise ship, a lot can go wrong."

He thought the pirates would wait, in the belief a rich country such as France would pay out a larger-than-normal ransom.

UPDATE: Based on information from ONI, the position of Le Ponant at time of capture was roughly where the red mark on the map is, 13:20N-050:23E.

Somali Pirates: Not Home in Eyl?

Updating prior reports here and here. The good mayor of Eyl, seeking, I guess to bolster tourism for his town, denies that the captured French cruise yacht has anchored off his town, it says here:

Abdullahi Said O’Yusuf, the mayor of Eyl, told Radio Garowe on Monday that the hijacked French yacht had passed Eyl and headed south towards coastal waters off the region of Mudug, in central Somalia.

Western news agencies reported that the French yacht and its 30-member crew had docked near the coastal village of Eyl.

But Mayor O’Yusuf, who reached the Puntland capital city of Garowe today, repeatedly denied the widespread reports, saying that the townspeople of Eyl would “not allow” the pirates to dock near their small fishing village.

One can safely assume that the French Navy and the other Coalition forces have "perfect knowledge" of where Le Ponant is.

An interesting unconfirmed side note in the article:

Unconfirmed reports emerging from the region of Mudug said the hijacked ship had reached a small coastal town in the village, where armed villagers engaged the pirates in a skirmish that killed at least two people.

Clan elders in Mudug contacted by Radio Garowe said they had heard of the report, but declined to comment until they reach the remote location for confirmation.

Hmmmm.

UPDATE: A report that an "elite" French force is being sent to the area:

Elite French troops were headed to East Africa to bolster efforts to free captives of a yacht held by pirates off Somalia, a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Monday.

A team of the GIGN, a commando force that conducts anti-terrorist and hostage rescue operations, was being sent to Djibouti to "reinforce" negotiation teams in place, spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said in an online briefing.
***
French officials made contact with the pirates overnight.

"We had confirmation that the crew was safe and sound and well-treated," Andreani said.

"Our priority is the safety of the hostages," she said.

Interestingly, the article ends with a plea for action from a regional Somali official:

The governor of the Somali region of Bari, where the yacht is being held, was quoted in Monday's Le Figaro as urging an attack on the pirates by French and U.S. warships. Musa Ghelle Yusuf urged an attack "for the peace of Somali waters."

He ia not alone in his request, as noted here:

Somali officials on Monday urged tough action against pirates holding a French yacht after an elite French army unit was placed on standby to intervene if negotiations failed.

The local governor in Somalia's breakaway northern region of Puntland, Musa Ghelle Yusuf, said he would be "happy ... to see the pirates killed."

"The French and American ships must attack the pirates. They have our blessing," Ghelle told AFP by phone, adding that the hijackers have been encouraged by ransoms paid in previous ship seizures.

"These pirates are terrorists and there is no need to negotiate with them," Guelleh said. "Attacking them will solve future piracy plans."

Somali Pirates: France considers rescue mission for pirated yacht

Background here. What to do about the pirated vessel Ponant? One report
suggests, not surprisingly, that a rescue mission is being considered:

"We are in constant contact with the yacht's owners, and the most important thing is to protect the lives of the crew. All options are being discussed, but we will try to resolve this without using force."

Even so, Paris is weighing up the merits of a rescue mission, using a joint US/Canadian/French marine commando unit from nearby Djibouti.

Report of a French "Pirate Alert Plan" here:

During the radio interview, the minister had declined to divulge any details regarding the plans of the authorities after the activation of France's "Pirate Alert Plan" which the prime minister's office announced Friday.

The plan notably includes placing elite military units trained specifically to intervene against pirates such as the Marine Commandos, including some detachments that are normally stationed on French Navy vessels, and the Paris-based National Gendarmerie Intervention Group on a state of alert.

In addition, the plan, according to French diplomatic sources, requires France to contact allies with a presence or operating in the zone where the specific incident occurred with a view to coordinating efforts.

In his remarks, the defense minister said that Le Ponant, an 88 meters long cruise yacht, was always being closely followed by a French patrol boat, which was operating in the area under the auspices of the United States-led "Task Force 150" anti-terrorist operations.

A suggestion of some limiting factors for the pirates found here:

A hijacked French luxury cruise yacht and its 30-member crew on Sunday sailed further south, headed for the pirates' Indian Ocean lair off Puntland, northeast Somalia, a local official said.

"We are getting information that the pirates are now moving towards southern coastal area of Garaad where I believe they will stay," said Abdullahi Said Aw-Yusuf, local government official in the area.

"They are well-armed pirates from Puntland region, so they cannot go far beyond Garaad," he added, explaining that the hijackers cannot go south beyond their lair.

I think the official is suggesting support and logistic issues for the pirates.

UPDATE: Map of area Eyl (Eil) is marked as "A" - possible area of "Garaad" marked as "B"



UPDATE2: Latest report has the ship off Eyl:

Local fisherman Mahdi Daud Anbuure told The Associated Press that he had seen the ship arriving at the northern town of Eyl and a small boat headed toward it, apparently with supplies.

On Saturday, the French prime minister said he hoped to avoid using force to free the crew but no options had been ruled out. There are 22 French citizens, including six women onboard. Other nationalities include Ukrainians.

A French frigate, Le Commandant Bouan, was temporarily diverted from NATO duties and was tracking the yacht, military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said Saturday. He added an airplane dispatched from a French base in Djibouti had flown over the yacht and all appeared calm aboard.

Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah, the Minister for Information in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said he hoped international forces "will rescue this ship" at Eyl, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the capital of Mogadishu.

UPDATE3: France has made contact with the pirates, as set out here:

French officials have finally made contact with the Somali pirates who hijacked a luxury yacht on Friday. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner reported only that "we have established contact, and the case may take a long time." He was noncommittal as to whether France would consider a paying a ransom, but did say, "We have to do everything to avoid bloodshed."

Reports from a local fisherman and Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah, information minister for the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, confirm that the hijacked ship has arrived in the town of Eyl, on the northern coast. Eyl is about 310 miles north of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

UPDATE4: Photo of pirates on captured ship from here. Caption:

This aerial photo, taken on Friday, shows gunmen, top left on deck, aboard the French cruise ship Le Ponant off Somalia's coast.
(HMCS Charlottetown/French Defence Ministry/Associated Press)

Most recent update here.

Somalia: Pirates take French cruise yacht

As Maggie noted in a comment below, while I was out trying to do my real job, a report comes in that Somali pirates nabbed another nice bit of ransom material, as set out here:

The crew of a French cruise yacht have been taken hostage by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, according to the French military and the boat's owner.

At least 30 crew members were reportedly on the 32-cabin, four-deck yacht, named the Le Ponant, when it was taken by the pirates on Friday.

According to officials from the CMA-CGM, a French maritime transport company that owns the ship, the pirates boarded the boat as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles heading towards the Mediterranean Sea.

30 hostages! That oughta bring these brigands some real dough!

No indication as to exactly where the ship was when it was captured...

UPDATE (4/5/08): Yemen denies capture occurred in Yemeni waters here:

Yemen said that the French yacht kidnapped by Somali pirates on Friday in the Arab Sea has been hijacked away of Yemen's territorial waters.

Security sources were quoted by the state-run almotamar.net as saying the Yemeni coastguard forces did not receive SOS nor a notice that the yacht was being attacked by the pirates.

UPDATE2: Information about Le Ponant available here. Deck plans:

Further info from AFP here:

The pirates have "moved towards the coastal area of Eyl in Puntland, but I don't think that our administration can do anything to trace that boat because of insufficient access to the area", Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, Puntland state adminstration officer, told AFP.

"We don't have a word yet from the hijackers and we don't know what they are about to ask, but I believe that those pirates could only be eliminated with the help of the international community," he added.

Despite sophisticated surveillance capacities and a helicopter flying over the 32-cabin, four-deck yacht 'The Ponant' on Friday after it was boarded between Somalia and Yemen, communications remained frozen on Saturday.

"We have had no contact, neither with the crew of the boat nor with the pirates," Defence Minister Herve Morin said on France Inter radio when asked whether there had been a ransom demand, usual practice for pirates operating in the area.

"What normally happens is that the pirates head for territorial Somali waters and it's sometimes after they do that when specific demands are made, which often come in the form of ransoms," Morin added.

He refused to go into the details of the pirate emergency plan, although Prime Minister Francois Fillon pointed on Friday to a "relatively large military means in the area".

However, Fillon also said he would prioritise "the safeguarding of the lives of those on board, therefore all channels of discussion are open in an effort to try and resolve this business".

Morin said about a dozen pirates were involved and that around 20 of the 30-strong crew were French, the rest Ukrainians. There were no passengers on board at the time.

France has its largest foreign military base in nearby Djibouti, and sophisticated surveillance is available to it and a Djibouti-based United States-led multinational force, Combined Task Force 150.

UPDATE3: Eyl Somalia area: Red arrow on map points to Eyl. Circles on first satellite image show (A) compound near Eyl and beach and (B) boats or other buildings on beach. Click on images to enlarge. Judging by the images, there is a shoal area near shore, which the pirates believe will deter major warships from coming too close to the beach.



UPDATE4: Updated news here. Crew includes 6 women. France is using Commandant Bouanto monitor the pirates.

The Defence Ministry said it sent a small warship, the Commandant Bouan, to shadow the boat, which was seized in open seas and has since been taken to Somali waters.

Mr Morin said Somalia had agreed to let the French navy enter its waters and added that additional frigates were being sent to the scene.

Updates here and here.