British couple kidnapped while sailing by Somali Pirates
A British couple sailing from the island nation of Seychelles vanished after their distress signal was picked up Friday, and British officials have warned the couple’s family that they may have been kidnapped by Somali pirates.
A man who has acted as a spokesman for the Somali pirates in the past said that the couple had been seized by pirates on the Indian Ocean.
Speaking by telephone from the pirates’ stronghold in the Somali coastal town of Xarardheere, the man, who identifies himself as Farah Abdi, said, “We have them safely in our hands.”
He said the captives and sailboat would be heading to the town “any day soon,” and that the pirates’ practice was to hold off on ransom demands “before the ship arrives at our shores.”
A few hours after that call, Abdi gave a dramatically different account in a second call, suggesting that the pirates who hijacked the British sailboat had come under attack from “naval forces” whom he was unable to identify.
Officials in London were not immediately available to comment on the report.
Abdi said he had heard that naval gunboats had attacked two pirate boats following the sailboat, and that some of the pirates appeared to have been killed. He said other pirates who were aboard the British sailboat appeared to have survived the attack.
“The two boats were destroyed, now they’re all in one boat,” Abdi said. Speaking of his fellow pirates, he added, “they are in danger.”
Another Xarardheere resident, a businesswoman named Leylo Ali, gave a different account, suggesting that the pirates may have scuttled their own boats as a precaution against a naval attack. She said that the two pirate boats had been “destroyed” on Monday, and that all the pirates were now safe aboard the British sailing boat with the hostages. “They were expected to arrive in Xarardheere today, but they did not,” she said.
If the couple’s capture is confirmed, the case would give further evidence that the Somali pirates, under pressure from U.S. and allied naval vessels deployed against them in the Gulf of Aden, have moved the focus of their operations farther south, and much farther out to sea. After a period in the late summer when there were fewer hijackings during monsoon weather and rough seas, a number of hijackings have been reported recently in the vicinity of the Seychelles.
In 2008, when the Somali pirates wrested as much as $80 million in ransom from a spate of hijackings, the main targets were larger cargo vessels and oil tankers. But private vessels have been seized on at least three previous occasions, including one in April this year. In that episode, a French yachtsman, Florent Lemacon, 28, was shot dead after French commandos stormed his yacht on the orders of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
