A French luxury yacht seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden has arrived in the northern town of Eyl, Somali officials confirmed on Sunday, a day after gunmen attempted to seize a German aid worker in the region.
Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah, the minister for information in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said local officials had “no objection” to the presence of international forces in the area.
“We hope they will rescue this ship,” he said.
Eyl is about 500km north of the capital, Mogadishu.
Local fisherman Mahdi Daud Anbuure said that he had seen the ship, which was seized on Friday in the Gulf of Aden, arriving.
“We also saw a small boat apparently carrying food supplies to the pirates heading toward it,” he said.
District commissioner Hareed Iise Umar said fishermen had reported seeing heavily armed pirates leaving the coastline nine days ago, although it was not possible to say whether they were they same ones holding the 88m Le Ponant.
About 10 pirates seized the ship on Friday as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM said.
On Saturday, the French prime minister said he hoped to avoid using force to free the 30-member crew but no options had been ruled out. There are 22 French citizens, including six women onboard.
Other nationalities include Ukrainians.
A French frigate, Le Commandant Bouan, was temporarily diverted from NATO duties and was tracking the yacht, military spokesman Commander Christophe Prazuck said on Saturday. He said an airplane dispatched from a French base in Djibouti had flown over the yacht and all appeared calm aboard.
A French envoy working on the case said on Sunday that hostages were being treated well and that they have been provided food and given the opportunity to wash. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, declined to say how officials had learned the information.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that France was in contact with the pirates.
“We have established contact, and the case may take a long time,” he said.
Asked whether France would consider paying a ransom, he said: “We’ll see. We have to do everything to avoid bloodshed.”
Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy, its armed forces are poorly paid and a transitional government formed in 2004 with UN help has struggled to assert control against Islamist insurgents.
Late on Sunday, Islamist fighters took possession of Balad, 30km north of Mogadishu, resident Abdi Ibrahim said.
It is the ninth town they have taken in the past few months, in a series of hit-and-run attacks that usually sees them voluntarily withdraw after capturing equipment and freeing prisoners.
Ibrahim said he was unaware of any casualties.
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