CAIRO: Somali pirates hijacked an Egyptian cargo ship with a crew of 28 near the coast of Somalia, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Thursday.
About 15 pirates, some of them heavily-armed, attacked the Blue Star, which carried 6,000 tons of fertilizer, near Bab Al-Mandab at it was headed east, said foreign ministry official Ahmed Rizq.
The crew are hostages … there are efforts underway to conduct the necessary talks to free the ship, Rizq said in the statement.
More than 100 attacks occurred in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of the lawless Horn of Africa country in 2008 alone.
Pirates had captured an Egyptian ship with a crew of 25 in September, holding them for almost a month before setting them free. Egypt said it did not pay a ransom for the crew and ship.
The pirates have been undeterred by the presence of foreign navies patrolling in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in a bid to secure one of the world s busiest shipping routes. -AFP
