The Maersk Alabama, an 1100 teu container vessel, has been attacked by pirates approximately 500 kilometres off the Somalia coast. Although the crew is once again in control of the ship, the hijackers are currently holding one member of the ship’s crew as a hostage.
The armed hijackers boarded the ship yesterday at around 05.00 UTC. The US flagged vessel has a crew of twenty US nationals and is owned and operated by Maersk Line, Limited in the US. The vessel is deployed in Maersk Line’s East Africa service network and was enroute to Mombasa with 400 twenty-foot containers of food aid for amongst others WFP (World Food Programme).
The crew members who are still on board are safe and no injuries have been reported. Maersk is working closely with the U.S. military and other government agencies to continue to respond to this situation as it develops further.
