By Abdiqani Hassan

BOSASSO, Somalia, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Somali pirates have hijacked an Iranian fishing vessel with 15 crew members, a Somali official and a maritime skilled mentioned on Monday amid warnings that piracy is likely to be making a comeback within the Indian Ocean.

Although there are nonetheless occasional circumstances of sea assaults, piracy close to Somalia’s coast had largely subsided prior to now three years, primarily attributable to delivery corporations hiring non-public safety particulars and the presence of worldwide warships.

The Iranian ship was taken on Sunday night in waters off northern Somali metropolis of Eyl, mentioned Abdirizak Mohamed Dirir, director of the anti-piracy and seaport ministry in Puntland, a semi-autonomous area in Somalia.

“Pirates hijacked an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel with its 15 crew from near Eyl,” Dirir instructed Reuters.

John Steed, East Africa area supervisor for the Oceans Beyond Piracy group, confirmed the hijacking and mentioned the vessel was known as Muhammidi.

Two different Iranian fishing ships have been captured by suspected pirates in March. The 16 crew from one boat managed to lift anchor and escape in August, however the different ship and 26 crew stay in captivity.

Steed mentioned there have been three different unsuccessful sea assaults by Somali pirates prior to now week, together with one final evening.

“This indicates that the level of illegal fishing is bringing the threat of return of Somali piracy ever closer,” added Kenya-based Steed.

Somali officers say the decline in piracy in recent times has emboldened foreign-flagged unlawful fishing vessels to plunder Somalia’s fish shares nearer to shore, bringing them inside attain of pirate gangs.

In a report printed in October, the U.N. Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, mentioned it was “concerned that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by foreign vessels may re-establish the conflict dynamic with local fishing communities that contributed to the rise of piracy a decade ago”.

The final outbreak of Somali piracy, on the finish of the earlier decade, price the world’s delivery business billions of {dollars} as pirates paralysed delivery lanes, kidnapped a whole bunch of seafarers and seized vessels greater than 1,000 miles from Somalia’s shoreline.

(Additional reporting and writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Edmund Blair and Richard Balmforth)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.

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