The French navy has captured nine suspected Somali pirates near the Gulf of Aden and handed them over to the authorities in the semi-autonomous region of northern Somalia, said France's defense ministry on Thursday.
The ministry said that the suspected pirates were arrested after the French naval vessel, which was patrolling the seas of Somalia to protect ships from piracy, intercepted two boats on Wednesday. It added that the naval officers recovered small arms, anti-tank weapons and equipment used to board ships from the arrested pirates.
The navy then handed them over to the authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland of northern Somalia after getting assurances from them that the arrested pirates would be tried and treated according to international conventions, the ministry statement added.
The coast of Somalia has been affected by piracy in the recent months and more than thirty pirate attacks were reported in the country's waters since the beginning of 2008. Generally, the crew and the vessels are returned unharmed on receiving the demanded ransom.
The escalation in the number of pirate attacks off the Somali coast forced various countries to deploy their naval vessels in the region to protect ships against piracy.
Among the ships hijacked off the Somali coast is MV Faina, a Ukrainian vessel that was seized by pirates in September with Russian arms on board. The pirates who hijacked the ship are still in control of the Faina, and are negotiating the terms for the release of the vessel with its owners.
Ever since the Ukrainian ship was hijacked in September, as many as 10 foreign naval vessels, including USS Howard of the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, have surrounded the hijacked vessel to prevent it from unloading its dangerous cargo.
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