Merchant ship hijacked off Yemen now held by Somali pirates, residents say

GAROWE, Somalia, July 23 (Reuters) – A merchant ship hijacked in Yemeni waters in the Gulf of Aden last week is now being held by Somali pirates, two residents of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region told Reuters on Thursday.

• The ship, the MT Asana, is a Tanzanian-flagged fuel and chemical tanker.

• One of the residents who spoke to Reuters described himself as a former pirate. He said there were 20 crew members on board the MT Asana, including eight from Germany and 10 from the Philippines.

• The other resident of Caluula in Puntland saw pirates transporting food to the hijacked ship.

• The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said last week that a vessel boarded by unauthorised personnel in the Gulf of Aden had been manoeuvred into Somali waters, classifying it as a hijack.

• Somali pirates caused havoc in the waters off the Horn of Africa nation’s long coastline between 2008 and 2018. After a lull, pirate activity started to pick up again in late 2023.

(Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Alexander Winning and Andrew Heavens)