Taiwan fishing boat presumed pirated missing of Madagascar , ,
Northwood, England - A Taiwanese fishing vessel has gone missing off Madagascar and is assumed to have been taken by Somali pirates, the European Union's anti-piracy mission said Thursday.
The EU, NATO and world powers such as Russia have all sent warships to the waters off Somalia to crack down on piracy. But their efforts seem to have spurred the pirates to move further and further from their home waters, striking across hundreds of miles.
'During the morning of December 25, the Taiwanese-owned fishing vessel FV Shiuh Fu No 1 reported being under pirate attack, approximately 120 nautical miles off the north-east tip of the island of Madagascar,' the EU's Operation Atalanta said in a statement.
Atalanta is the name of the mission carried out by the EU's naval force (EU-NAVFOR), based at the British naval base of Northwood.
'No further communication with the vessel has been possible since the attack, but strong indications are that FV Shiuh Fu No 1 has been pirated,' the statement read.
The ship is manned by 26 seamen from China, Taiwan and Vietnam, the statement said.
The ship radioed for help on Christmas morning, saying that it was being chased by a skiff. That is a tactic typically used by Somali pirates, who put to sea in larger vessels towing a number of small, fast boats, and then release those speed-boats, heavily armed, once they sight a target.
Radio contact was lost after the sighting.
Despite the stepped-up presence of military escort vessels, 26 ships and 613 hostages are thought to be in captivity in Somalia.
The fact that the Shiuh Fu No 1 was taken off Madagascar, hundreds of nautical miles from Somalia, is likely to cause concern, appearing as further evidence of the pirates' ability to threaten shipping well beyond their home waters.
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