Based on the AP, there appear to be only four hostages held in Somalia. But what of the seafarers being held for ransom?  According to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, 28 ship were hijacked and 470 sailors were taken hostage in Somalia in 2011. 151 are still being held hostage.

As is so often the case, sailors are too often invisible and ignored. To learn more go to Save Our Seafarers.

Marie Didieu's house at Ras Gitau on Manda Island. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images

Marie Didieu, a disabled  66-year-old French woman, was kidnapped yesterday from her vacation home on Manda Island, part of the Lamu archipelago, not far from where a British tourist was killed and his wife abducted three weeks ago.  The kidnappers arrived and departed by speedboat early Saturday morning.  They were pursued by Kenyan naval craft but escaped to Somalia.

Last month, David Tebbutt was killed and his wife Judith was kidnapped from Kiwayu Safari Village, an exclusive Kenyan resort, not far from Mandu Island.  Judith Tebbutt is believed to be being held in central Somalia, by a pirate gang.   The British Foreign Office has issued a warning to British citizens to stay away from all Kenyan beaches within 93 miles (150km) of the border with Somalia.  The French government also warned its citizens against visiting Lamu.

The identity of the kidnappers is unclear. The Somali coast near the Kenyan border is believed to be controlled by the Islamist group al-Shabab.  Nevertheless, reports that Judith Tebbutt is being held by by a pirate gang in Central Somali may suggest cooperation between the two groups.

British tourist Judith Tebbutt, kidnapped last week from an exclusive Kenyan resort, is believed to be being held in central Somalia, by a pirate gang. Her husband, David Tebbutt, was killed in the pirate attack last week.  British Tourist, Kidnapped in Kenya, May Be in Central Somalia

The containership MSC Luciana which ran aground on Monday on a sand bar in the Westerschelde was towed off the sand bank at high tide that evening with the assistance of around nine tugs, and proceeded to Zeebrugge for underwater hull inspection.

Thanks to Dirk Bal and  Alaric Bond for providing updates.

Piracy today is a huge problem. Thousands of mariners have been taken hostage by pirates, held in captivity for long periods under horrible conditions.  Modern piracy costs the world between $10 and 20 billion per year.  Pretending to be a Disney pirate may be an amiable amusement but otherwise only distracts from the real problem of modern day piracy. To learn more about modern piracy go to “SaveOurSeafarers.”

An article in the Guardian from last June does something extremely unusual. It allows a real victim of Somali piracy a voice.

Experience: I was kidnapped by Somali pirates

‘They kept us in a state of terror. Even when I could not see the torturing, I could hear the screams’

In April last year, I was training to become a naval officer on a chemical carrier owned by a company based in Mumbai. There were 22 of us aboard the boat – a mix of professional sailors and engineers from India; at 21, I was the youngest member of the crew. 

The ship was heading from India to Norway, a journey that was meant to take 25 days. On the fourth day, late in the afternoon, I was on watch when one of the other lookouts yelled that he could see a boat approaching. We were sailing 120 miles south of Oman, a remote area of water, and from the size and appearance of the vessel, we suspected it was pirates.

I immediately radioed an Indian navy ship for help – but it was too late. Minutes later, six pirates boarded and, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles, opened fire on us. It was utterly terrifying and chaotic. We had no choice but to surrender. 

We were herded into the navigational control room on deck and made to lie on the floor. In broken English, the pirates told us they were going to ask for a ransom of £15m from the company we worked for. Everyone was incredibly frightened. We lay in silence until the early hours of the next morning, when a further six pirates joined our ship and informed us we were going to sail to Somalia.

Conditions on the ship were unspeakable. We were confined to a tiny corner of the control room. The windows were sealed shut and it was airless and suffocating. The hygiene was appalling – we were allowed to use the toilet, but that soon degenerated into a stinking mess. Nearly all of us became sick. We were fed, but only enough to keep us alive – basic meals of potatoes and onions. Once every couple of weeks, we were allowed on deck to stretch our legs.

The pirates took it in turns to keep their guns trained on us – there was never a chance of escape. Nor was there any opportunity to develop a friendship with them. They kept us in a state of terror – we were beaten constantly with metal poles. I managed to avoid the worst violence, but I saw my crewmates being thrashed with sticks and having electric probes attached to their genitals, and one man was suspended by ropes from the ship’s mast for several hours. Even when I could not see the torturing, I could hear the screams. I can still hear the screams to this day. I don’t know why I wasn’t hurt more – maybe they thought I was too young and unimportant. Some of the older crew members were argumentative, but I made sure never to antagonise the pirates.

Read the rest of the article

Somali Pirates Free 7 Danes

Somali pirate: I made $2.4 mln from ransoms in 2010

Only two years after deciding to join in the piracy rampant off the Somalian coast, Saeed Yare is a dollar multi-millionaire.

“It is not an easy job being a pirate. You gamble with your life, but I enjoy being a piracy tycoon,” says the slim 27-year-old, dressed in a sharp suit he says is Italian.

“The piracy business is like a presidential seat, you don’t want to give it up once you taste its sweetness. A friend of mine died in the recent navy operation — but he left one million dollars!” Yare said, referring to a botched rescue attempt that left four U.S. citizens dead.

Yare said he made $2.4 million in 2010: $1.2 million for investing in the venture that led to the hijacking of the British-flagged Asian Glory, another $700,000 for Saudi tanker Al Nisr Al Saudi and $500,000 for Bulgarian vessel Panega.

“I earned more cash after investing in two operations and personally participating in a separate hijacking, all were successful,” he said.

“I spent some of the cash on weapons, private bodyguards, luxury cars, trucks, a boat and three villas. And I still have enough to use until another ship is hijacked.”

Armed pirate gangs have made millions of dollars striking at ships in the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean, as far south as the Seychelles islands and eastwards towards India.

Yare abandoned a lucrative trade in khat, a sure-fire route to amassing riches in the Horn of Africa country, when he saw former fishermen getting even richer by piracy.

He befriended a pirate who advised him to “invest” $80,000 to help carry out a hijacking and expect a 50 percent return of $120,000 once ransom was paid.

“I got inspired to be a pure pirate in 2009. First, I set off into the sea with them and captured a Saudi oil tanker that made us lick our fingers — a hell of a lot of cash!”

The real victims of piracy are invariably the seafarers who are held for ransom often under grim conditions for long periods of time.  From a statement relased by the Round Table of international shipping associations – and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF):

500 Seafarers held hostage by pirates at Christmas

As many people are about to enjoy the Christmas holiday season, it is important to remember that over 500 seafarers, of many different nationalities, are currently being held hostage by Somali pirates.

In fear for their safety, and even of their lives, and deprived of contact with their families, these seafarers have also suffered the trauma of having their ships attacked with automatic weapons, prior to being kidnapped for ransom. Many have been held captive for several months, often in the most appalling conditions, by armed criminals who can be violent and unpredictable.

Merchant seafarers are too often out of sight and out of mind. It is vital that the international community focuses on the plight of those held in Somalia, as well as the tens of thousands of ships’ crew who, each and everyday throughout the holiday period, will continue to transport the raw materials and finished products that keep our modern world functioning. About 90% of world trade is transported by sea, including many of those goods, exchanged as Christmas gifts, which have been transported via the high-risk pirate danger area which now extends over much of the Indian Ocean.

There has been an unprecedented degree of co-operation amongst the world’s military navies, whose dedicated personnel are seeking to provide protection to merchant shipping. But the number of navy ships available is simply insufficient to prevent vulnerable ships from being attacked. Moreover, 85% of those pirates pursued and captured end up being released, only to reoffend with impunity. The risk/reward ratio is still far too much in the pirates’ favour.

A few months ago there was an incredible global response to plight of the miners trapped in Chile. The 500 seafarers, held hostage over Christmas in Somalia, are also isolated and terrified, and deserve similar recognition from the media and the public at large. Governments might then be persuaded to do more to deter, and ultimately eradicate, the scourge of Somali piracy.

Since January 2008, over 2,600 seafarers have been held hostage by Somali pirates.

On Monday the USS Winston S. Churchill attempted to render aid to an overloaded skiff drifting in the Gulf of Aden with 85 refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia.   The skiff’s engine had broken down.  According to a statement released by the Navy:

At 8:30 local Sept. 27, while transferring humanitarian supplies to the skiff, the passengers rushed to one side and the skiff began taking on water, quickly capsizing and sinking rapidly, leaving all 85 passengers in the water. Winston S. Churchill immediately began conducting search and rescue operations using an additional RHIB assisted by an Australian maritime patrol aircraft.

Despite the effort, approximately 13 passengers drowned, while 61 passengers were rescued and brought safely on board Winston S. Churchill. Eight passengers have been listed as missing.

The hijack began on Wednesday when pirates boarded the 8,000-tonne container ship, which flies the flag of Antigua.

But after searching the vessel for three hours, they were unable to locate the crew, according to the ship’s German owners, Quadrant.

The pirates then phoned the shipping company in Hamburg to ask where the crew were hidden.

“They were told the crew was on holiday,” said spokesman Juergen Salamon.

“They then asked how to switch the engines back on, but were told they were broken.”

A group of 24 marines swooped on the German-owned M/V Magellan Star and took control of the ship from nine pirates who had captured it on Wednesday.

The marines launched their assault from aboard the USS Dubuque, after the Turkish frigate TCG Gokceada responded to a distress call from the Magellan Star.

U.S. forces board pirate-captured vessel, seize control

Recent pirate attacks have demonstrated both the success and the failure of the ongoing multi-national naval flotilla to combat piracy off the Horn of Africa.  The M/V Magellan Star was one of three ships operating in the “Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC)” in the Gulf of Aden which is patrolled by international naval patrols.  The Greek tanker Olib G was successfully hijacked by pirates on Wednesday morning, while the Jamaican-flagged bulk carrier M/V Miltiades was attacked by pirates who were subsequently driven away by naval forces.  The M/V Miltiades was also attacked last year in the Gulf of Aden but onboard security forces repulsed the attack.

The continued attacks by pirates in waters that are heavily patrolled by the naval forces in not not encouraging.  An estimated 24 vessels with 429 people onboard are believed to be held by Somali pirates as of September 1.