Bulker hijacked

A Slovenian-owned bulk carrier has been hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, TradeWinds understands.

The 32,442-dwt Ariella (built 1983) was snatched within the last few hours, reports from numerous well-placed sources suggest.

It is unknown how many crew are onboard the Antigua & Barbuda-flagged vessel and there are so far no reports of any injuries.

The exact time and location of the hijacking are also unknown.

Nobody was immediately available for comment at the ship's Portoroz-based owner and operator, Splozna Plovba, on Friday morning.

Ship-tracking software shows that the bulker was recently headed southbound through the Red Sea en route to Surabaya, Indonesia. It has P&I cover with the Steamship Mutual.

The Ariella is the second ship in the past three days to be seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The 4,800-dwt Libyan-owned general cargoship Rim (built 1973) was snatched on Wednesday north of the Internationally Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC). The North Korea-flagged was not registered with the UK Maritime Trade Operation (UKMTO) in Dubai.

Still nothing is known of the size and composition of its crew with no details obtainable for its supposed Tripoli-based owner White Sea Shipping.

News wire AFP reported on Friday that a shoot out had erupted between Somaliland coastguards and the pirates onboard the vessel as they anchored it off the coast of Laasqoray, a town in the Sanaag region, a disputed territory boardering both Somaliland and the pirate-infested region of Puntland.

"Pirates holding the cargo ship opened fire on our coast guards... They exchanged fire while heading to [Lasqorey]," Abdirisak Yusuf Aseyr, a Somaliland regional police chief, told AFP. One coastguard troop is reported to have been killed in the gun battle.

Aseyr claimed there are around 30 pirates onboard the ship.

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