Somalia: Iranian fishing vessel held by Somali Pirates escapes

An Iranian fishing vessel held captive by a group of Somali pirates for five months has managed to escape with all the crew members unhurt, reports and local residents said.
The vessel, Jaber, was seized by the sea gangs in March in the first successful hijacking in the region in three years. It is not yet clear on the dramatic escape made by the vessel accused of illegal fishing activities at the time of its capture.
Another vessel, Siraj, captured together still remains under the control of the pirates in the waters close to Mudug’s Ceel Huur village, South-central Somalia.
One local resident told Horseed Media the vessel managed to escape and leave the area on Thursday morning but couldn’t give further details.
“It looks like the captain took the opportunity of a passing helicopter or whatever, when the guards were distracted and were not on the ship … and cut his anchors and motored out,”John Steed, a regional manager for Oceans Beyond Piracy, was quoted in the Reuter news agency.
Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa with 3,330 KM. Since the central government was overthrown in 1991, foreign fishing trawlers began illegal fishing and ships from big companies started dumping waste off the coast of the lawless country.
The number of attacks by Somali pirates dropped sharply since 2012, largely because of an international naval effort. One of the other major factors that led to the decline of Piracy was the growing lack of support or even resistance to piracy operations by local communities. As much as many Somalis along the coast resented the international navies, they resented the effects of piracy on their communities even more.
Horseed Media