Somali pirates are believed to have hijacked a chemical tanker and its 25-member crew off the coast of Kenya.The vessel was loaded with over 28,000 tons of crude palm oil
| Walking barefoot through that stuff won't do the pirates any harm... unless they slip, fall, and break a hip or something equally useful. Not like the kind of chemicals Iran ships through that part of the world. |
The MT Gemini "was believed to have been hijacked by pirates... on 30 April at 12:33 pm Singapore time (0433 GMT)," AFP quoted the statement as saying.
Glory said it last communicated with the crew -- comprising 13 Indonesians, three Myanmar nationals, five Chinese and four South Koreans -- early afternoon Singapore time on April 30 before contact was cut off.
The shipper made no mention of ransom in its statement, but stressed that it would spare no efforts to secure the release of the crew.
Rampant piracy off the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia has made these waters among the most dangerous in the world.
Somali pirates, who increased the number of successful hijackings in 2010, have become more violent and have expanded their attack zone.
There are currently 27 vessels and 600 crew members held by Somali pirates, according to the European Union naval force mission.
Somalia does not have a functioning government and the authority of the Transitional Federal Government is limited mostly to the area around the capital, Mogadishu.