The Indian Navy on Saturday recaptured a ship from Somalian “pirates” off the Indian coast, the military said, rescuing the crew and ending a three-month takeover of the Maltese-flagged bulk carrier MV Ruen.
The hijacking of the ship in December last year was the first time since 2017 that any cargo vessel had been successfully boarded by Somalian pirates.
“#IndianNavy thwarts designs of Somalian pirates to hijack ships plying through the region by intercepting ex-MV Ruen,” the navy wrote on X.
Photo: Indian Navy on X via AP
The Indian warship INS Kolkata “in the last 40 hours, through concerted actions successfully cornered and coerced all 35 Pirates to surrender & ensured safe evacuation of 17 crew members,” the navy wrote.
Indian forces first intercepted the MV Ruen on Friday, the navy wrote.
“The vessel opened fire on the warship, which is taking actions [in accordance with] international law, in self-defence & to counter piracy, with minimal force necessary to neutralise the pirates’ threat to shipping and seafarers,” the navy wrote.
None of the rescued crew members were injured in the multi-day operation, which was carried out in conjunction with several naval vessels, as well as helicopters and other aircraft, the navy said. The pirated ship was recaptured nearly 1,400 nautical miles (2,593km) from the Indian coast, the military said.
The Indian Navy has kept tabs on the MV Ruen since it was seized by Somalian pirates 380 nautical miles east of the Yemeni island of Socotra. The pirates, who at the time released one injured sailor into the care of the navy, had taken the MV Ruen and its remaining 17 crew members to Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland, where the navy said it was moored off the city of Bosaso.
The Indian military has stepped up its anti-piracy efforts in the past few months following an uptick in maritime assaults, including in the Arabian Sea and by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
Pirate attacks off the Somalian coast peaked in 2011 — with gunmen launching attacks as far as 3,655km from the Somalian coast in the Indian Ocean — before falling off sharply in the past few years.
However, December’s attack followed a spike in armed seaborne attacks around the Horn of Africa not seen in years.
Analysts say Somalian piracy poses nowhere near the threat it did in 2011, when navies around the world had to deploy warships to beat them back.
However, this recent upswing in pirate activity has raised further concerns about marine security and shipping at a time when crucial trade corridors off Yemen have come under siege.
Since the Houthi attacks, many cargo ships have slowed down far out at sea to await instructions on whether to proceed to the Red Sea, which experts say can make them vulnerable to attack.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS