Somalia, May 08: Somali pirates have seized a Yemeni fishing boat with seven crew members on board off the coast of Yemen, the country’s defense ministry website has reported.
The website quoted the Yemeni coastguard as saying that the pirates hijacked the boat, called the ‘al-Dhafir’, as it was docked at a Yemeni island in the Red Sea.
The website did not mention the exact time of the hijack but said that the ship had been taken towards the Somali coasts.
Heavily armed Somali pirates have in recent months stepped up their attacks on merchant vessels and oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, collecting tens of millions of dollars in ransom by hijacking ships.
The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, is an important corridor for the 25,000 vessels that pass through the sea route every year.
—Agencies