The Greek-flagged tanker-traveling from
The hijacking, one year after seizure of a Saudi supertanker led to heightened international efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa, has highlighted the difficulty of keeping ships safe in the region-particularly oil tankers.
The Maran Centaurus was about 800 miles (1300 kilometers) off the coast of
While some ships traveling in the region have been outfitted with high pressure water guns and piercing noisemakers to repel pirates, even this is shunned on oil tankers for fear of triggering a response from pirates armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
"If you’re not allowed to smoke a cigarette on the upper deck of an oil tanker, why would you want someone with a weapon up there?" said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, who heads the private security company Dryad Maritime Intelligence.
Source: Africa World News