Kenya and Egypt are calling for action against Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden while the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reports that 77 incidents involving sea robbers have been reported since January in that sea way.

The most recent were three last week on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.

On Wednesday last week pirates armed with automatic weapons aboard two speedboats opened fire on a bulk carrier underway. “The pirates boarded and hijacked the vessel and took the 20 crew as hostage. They then sailed the vessel to an undisclosed location in Somalia. The vessel was carrying a cargo of iron ore pellets from Pointe Noire, Canada to Rizhao, China when it was hijacked,” the IMB web site says of the incident.

Pirates fired on ships with small arms in all three incidents reported on Tuesday. In the first incident, at 8am, pirates on speedboats fired at a tanker and attempted to board. The ship took evasive action, transmitted mayday messages and sounded the foghorn. The pirates moved off after 10 minutes.

Read more at: DefenceWeb