In the first hijack of a commercial ship by Somali pirates since 2012, the freighter turned off its tracking system and diverted its course towards the Somali coast after sending a distress call upon being approached by high-speed boats on Monday (13 March) . “There has been discussion going on after the gunfight of this afternoon … We pulled our forces back and so the pirates went away,” said Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, the director general of the maritime police force for Somalia’s semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland. Somali pirates that hijacked the bunker tanker Aris 13 in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday have demand a ransom according to EU Naval Force (EU Navfor).
The Somali pirates that hijacked the Aris 13, a United Arab Emirates-owned oil tanker, release it without condition.