India’s navy frees ship hijacked by Somali pirates

This photograph shared by the Indian navy shows the hijacked ship ex-MV Ruen on Saturday March 16. Photo / Indian Navy on X via AP

India’s navy has freed the crew of a hijacked ship that Somali pirates were preparing to use as a base for attacks on other vessels, in the most violent incident yet of a recent resurgence of pirate activity off the coast of Somalia.

The operation followed a prolonged stand-off over the weekend between the crew of an Indian Navy vessel, INS Kolkata, and 35 pirates on the MV Ruen who opened fire on Indian military personnel.

The Ruen, owned by Bulgarian shipping company Navibulgar, had been seized by pirates in December.

After sitting off the coast of Eyl in Somalia for months, the Ruen last week headed further out to sea, leading maritime security experts to think the pirates planned to use the vessel as a base for attacks.

Somalia’s pirates often use larger vessels as “mother ships” from which to launch assaults hundreds of miles off the coast.

India’s navy wrote on Saturday on the social media platform X that it had “successfully cornered and coerced all 35 pirates to surrender and ensured safe evacuation of 17 crew members...from the pirate vessel without any injury”.

Ambrey, a UK-based maritime security company, said it believed the 17 people freed were the entire remaining crew of the Ruen after one crew member was previously transported home from Somalia for medical reasons.

Maritime security bulletins on Friday had reported the pirates were threatening to kill members of the crew unless the Indian Navy stopped firing at pirates on the Ruen. The navy published online pictures of pirates firing into the air, apparently at its helicopters.

The Indian Navy’s action follows the seizure on Thursday of the Abdullah, a Bangladesh-owned bulk carrier, 600 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. There have been reports in the maritime intelligence community that pirates based on the Ruen might have been involved in that attack.

Somalia’s pirates have resumed attacks in recent months as navies off its coasts have concentrated on combating the threat to ships from Yemen’s Houthis, who have fired missiles at scores of ships. The Iranian-backed Houthis say they are operating in support of Gaza’s Palestinians.

The head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization last month told the Financial Times that shipping companies needed to bolster security when transiting waters off Somalia to prevent a return of widescale piracy.

The UK’s Dubai-based Maritime Trade Operations office warned in January that two “pirate action groups” based on hijacked dhows were waiting in international waters hundreds of miles off Somalia’s coast.

At the peak of Somalia’s piracy crisis, between 2009 and 2012, Somali pirates were seizing scores of ships annually, some as far as 1,000 nautical miles from Somalia. Activity had all but ceased until recently.

The operation over the weekend marks the second time this year that India’s navy has freed a ship seized by pirates. In January, it successfully freed the bulk carrier Lila Norfolk after pirates briefly took control of the ship.

India’s navy has multiple assets deployed in the region to combat both piracy and the threat from the Houthis.

“The Indian Navy remains committed to maritime security and safety of seafarers in the region,” it said in a statement.

Written by: Robert Wright in London and Benjamin Parkin in New Delhi

© Financial Times