RFA Fort Victoria, a British Royal Navy vessel, was patrolling in an area around 420 nm from the Seychelles and 350 nm from the Somali coast last week as part of NATO’s counter piracy task force 508.
Information was received that a Spanish fishing vessel, operating to the north of its position, had come under attack from a group of pirate vessels. The RFA Fort Victoria’s Lynx helicopter was quickly dispatched to investigate.
Once at the scene, the helicopter identified two suspect vessels, a whaler and a skiff, in the vicinity of the fishing vessel. The faster of the two, a skiff, sped away at over 25 knots as the helicopter gave chase. When the skiff ignored orders to stop, the Lynx helicopter fired warning shots ahead of the fleeing vessel. It stopped, and the suspected pirates onboard were then transferred to Fort Victoria via boat.
Fort Victoria’s Royal Marines boarding team then boarded the whaler and another skiff in the vicinity. As a result of the day’s action, a total of seven suspected pirates were detained onboard Fort Victoria along with their whaler as evidence. No injuries were sustained by either side during the operation.
Captain Gerry Northwood of the Royal Navy, embarked in Fort Victoria said, “It has been a long but rewarding operation with many complex aspects. Operating under NATO tasking and in consultation with our headquarters in the Middle East and in the UK, we utilised a range of national and international assets to bring these events to a satisfactory conclusion. Fort Victoria has once again demonstrated that multinational coordination can be successfully deployed to disrupt piracy in this area in order to protect international merchant shipping.”
NATO has contributed to the international counter piracy effort off the Horn of Africa since December 2008. The mission has expanded from escorting UN and World Food Programme Shipping under Operation Allied Provider and protecting merchant traffic in the Gulf of Aden under Operation Allied Protector. In addition to these activities and as part of the latest mission, Operation Ocean Shield, NATO is working with other international bodies to help develop capacity of countries in the region to tackle piracy on their own.
Source: Maritime Journal