Somali pirates have hijacked a Dutch ship with an eight crew on board in the Gulf of Aden, a regional maritime official said on Thursday.
Andrew Mwangura, East Africa's Coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP), said there are no immediate details on the number of crew or their nationalities.
"The Dutch vessel was hijacked early Thursday and I have not established the nationalities of the crew members on board and where the ship was bound," Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone from Mombasa.
The attack came a day after pirates hijacked German owned ship in the string of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.
Mwangura said the MV Victoria with 11 Romanian crew members was seized in the pirate-infested waters on Tuesday.
"The ship was hijacked by Somali pirates on Tuesday as it was sailing bound for Jeddah. The crew members are unhurt but I have not established where the ship was sailing from," Mwangura said on Tuesday.
The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship is carrying 10,000 metric tons of rice and was bound for Jeddah. Maritime officials said the vessel was seized late Tuesday in an area 120 kilometers south of Yemen.
Somali pirates are still seizing ships in the Gulf of Aden, despite the presence of international naval patrols in the area.
The pirates are shifting their operations to other zones but are still active near the Somali coast.
Some 20 ships are currently thought to be in the hands of pirates, with about 300 people being held hostage.
Insecurity within the Somali waters have pushed up insurance premiums and resulted to high freight costs.
Shipping companies last year handed over about 80 million dollars in ransom payments to Somali pirates.
The Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective government since 1991, fuelling the lawlessness which has allowed the pirates to thrive.
Efforts to stop the raiders have so far had only limited success, with international naval patrols struggling to cover the vast areas of ocean where the gangs operate.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2009)
