An oil tanker has been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, in a fresh sign of rising insecurity along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
The vessel, MT Eureka, was sailing under the flag of Togo when it was overrun by armed men near the Yemeni port of Qana at around 5:00am CAT.
Sources say the tanker is now being steered towards Somalia and is expected to anchor in Somali waters in the coming hours.
The hijacking took place in the Gulf of Aden, a key maritime corridor between Yemen and Somalia that has long been vulnerable to piracy.
This is the second such incident in just over a week. On April 22, Somali pirates seized another tanker, Honor 25, which was reportedly carrying 18 500 barrels of oil bound for Mogadishu.
–ChannelAfrica–
