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The Philippine Embassy in Nairobi has confirmed that five Filipino
seamen were among the crew of a freight ship that was hijacked off
the coast of Somalia on May 26.
According to Claro Cristobal, the spokesperson
of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy in Nairobi
reported that the MV Amiya Scan, a Dutch-owned, Panama-flagged
freight ship had five Filipino crewmen onboard.
The ship was reportedly hijacked off the coast
of Somali in the Gulf of Aden in the morning of May 26. The
hijackers have yet to be identified and no ransom demand has been
reported yet.
The department has instructed the Philippine
embassies in Nairobi and The Hague to coordinate with international
maritime authorities and the ship owners on efforts to secure the
safe and early release of the crewmen.
The MV Amiya Scan is chartered by a Danish
company identified as Scan-Trans Shipping. It reportedly sails under
a Panamanian flag for convenience.
The ship departed Kenya on May 19 on its way to
Romania when it was hijacked.
This is the second hijacking this year involving
Filipinos in the Gulf of Aden. On April 4, the French cruise ship,
the Le Ponant, was hijacked in the same gulf with six Filipino
crewmen.
The Amiya Scan was the sixth ship hijacked by
Somali pirates in two months, said a report from the Commercial
Crimes Services of the International Maritime Bureau. Since January
1 of this year, 24 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden,
compared with 44 for the whole of last year.
-- Katrice R. Jalbuena
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