Last week, pirates hijacked the “MT Asana” in the Gulf of Aden. Now there is apparently contact with the kidnappers.
July 23, 2026, 10:39 p.mJuly 23, 2026, 10:39 p.m
A merchant ship with eight Germans on board that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden last week is being held by Somali pirates. Two residents of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland reported this to the Reuters news agency on Thursday.
The tanker “MT Asana” was hijacked by Somali pirates with 20 crew members on board.Image: x
The ship is the tanker “MT Asana”, which sails under the Tanzanian flag. There were 20 crew members on board, including eight Germans and ten Filipinos, said one of the men, who described himself as a former pirate. The other reported how pirates brought food to the hijacked ship.
The British Marine Authority for Merchant Shipping (UKMTO) announced last week that a ship had been boarded by unauthorized persons in the Gulf of Aden and maneuvered into Somali waters. The authorities classified the incident as a hijacking. Between 2008 and 2018, Somali pirates made the waters off the country’s long coast on the Horn of Africa unsafe. After a long lull, piracy increased again at the end of 2023.
Sources used:
- Reuters news agency