Pirates have hijacked a Malaysian cargo ship with 23 crew members on board off the coast of Somalia.
European Union's anti-piracy force - EU NAVFOR - said Kenya-bound 'MV Albedo' was seized about 900 nautical miles east of Somali capital Mogadishu in a pre-dawn attack on Friday.
Spokesman Per Klingvall said the vessel was carrying containers from the UAE port of Jebel Ali to Mombasa in Kenya.The crew included Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Iranians.
In a report published recently, the maritime watchdog of the International Chamber of Commerce noted that pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden recorded a drastic drop of 44 during a nine-month period from January to September this year.
EU NAVFOR is extending its current patrol and rescue operations off the coast of Somalia in an effort to counter the pirates' tactics of shifting their operations into unexplored areas.
Currently, international anti-piracy forces are conducting regular patrols in the Gulf of Aden, off the Somali coast, and parts of the Indian Ocean.
Piracy continues to be a menace on the vital sea route in the Arabian Sea between Yemen and Somalia, which connects the Gulf and Asia to Europe and beyond via the Suez Canal. It is critical to Gulf oil shipments.
Pirates are currently holding 22 ships and more than 500 crew, demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms for their release. Most of the gangs are based in northern Somalia's Puntland region.
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