Somali pirates abandon hijacked UAE dhow mothership

An aerial view of Port of Mogadishu in Somalia. [Getty Images]

Somali pirates have abandoned a hijacked lemon-laden Emirati dhow at sea after failing to use the vessel to attack other ships, security sources in Somalia's Puntland state told AFP.

No information was available on the fate of the crew of Fahad-4, a ship which was stormed in late April by an 11-strong pirate gang after setting out from Mogadishu carrying its citrus cargo.

In the wake of a recent rash of similar hijackings, the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC) in early May raised its pirate threat level to "severe", its second-highest level.

According to the JMIC, which is run by a massive 47-nation coalition deployed in the northern Indian Ocean to fight the Horn of Africa's longtime pirate menace, the dhow was attacked about 10 nautical miles (19 kilometres) off the coastal town of Dhinowda in northeastern Somalia.

Puntland security officials told AFP that the pirate crew had set out from an area near the port of Garacad, some 600 kilometres north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

After taking control of the dhow, the pirates "sailed Somali waters using the hijacked ship as a mothership to attempt to attack other ships", one of those sources told AFP.

The pirates were then forced to abandon ship on May 4 as "their supplies were running short and they weren't able to attack other ships because of a heightened alert by ships sailing through Somali waters in recent weeks," a second official told AFP.

Other ships hijacked in recent weeks remain in pirate hands.

According to maritime monitors, pirates had already seized the Bajan-flagged Honour 25 tanker on April 21 off Puntland.

Days later on April 26, the Syrian-pennant-waving M/V Sward fell victim further off the Somali coast.

Across the Gulf of Aden, pirates took control of the Togo-flagged Eureka petrol tanker off the coast of Yemen before steering the ship towards Somali shores.

In a recent bulletin, the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean, linked to the European naval force present in the Horn of Africa, said it was "almost certain" that the Fahad-4 was involved in an aborted attack against the Maltese M/V Minerva Pisces tanker on April 28.

In that incident, a dhow approached the tanker, only for a would-be boarding party to turn back when a security team showed up with weapons.

The Somali authorities have yet to respond to a request for comment on the Fahad-4.