The fishing vessel Lorenzo Putha 04 with the six Sri Lankan fishermen rescued from Somalian Sea pirates by the Seychelles Coast Guard reached the main island of Mahe Yesterday (31).
The Seychelles police arrested the three Somali pirates who had robbed the vessel. The Island’s News Agency had reported the news with a description of the difficult nature of the operation.
Lorenzo Son 04 rescue Joint Operation
A joint operation had been launched to rescue a captivated multiday fishing vessel that embarked on its maiden journey from Dickovita fishing harbor recently. The final result of the active operation jointly conducted by the Sri Lanka Navy, the Indian Navy, and the Seychelles Navy provided an example of how to act to curb the dominance of pirates.
The Indian media had reported that the Seychelles Coast Guard is arresting the vessel in Seychelles with the help of inputs from the Indian Navy.
Lorenzo Son 04 falls into the hands of pirates on Saturday 500 nautical miles off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia. In response, the Indian Navy deployed its patrol vessel INS Sharada, and sent Sea Guardian drones to locate the hijacked vessel.
After coordination and exchange of information through Sri Lanka and Seychelles liaison officers, the trawler was seized by the Seychelles Coast Guard on Monday.
Seychelles media story
The Director of Operations of the Seychelles Coast Guard Major Hans Radegonde told reporters that piracy had resumed in the region since late last year. Somali waters and the Gulf of Aden region have a notorious history of piracy. The amount of these loots increased significantly with the Israel-Hamas war.
“Now we see that piracy is happening more often than last year. It has been confirmed that the area where they are operating is close to the Seychelles Sea. We are always alert and continue our operations,” said Director Major Hans Radegonde.
Radegonde explained that he received news from the Sri Lankan Navy regarding the hijacking on Saturday and that the operation to rescue the hostages took place on Monday after the vessel entered the 1.4 million square kilometer Seychelles Exclusive Economic Zone.
“When we got the news on Saturday afternoon, planes and boats were still patrolling the area. So immediately we went to the place where the boat was said to have been hijacked.
This location is about 400 to 500 nautical miles northeast of Mahe and is within our exclusive economic zone (an exclusive economic zone is an area of ocean extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) beyond a nation’s territorial sea. Within this zone, jurisdiction over both living and non-living resources ) was outside. It took us about a day and a half to track the boat and track its course. At that time, we saw that they entered Seychelles’ EEZ,” he explained.
“We came close to the boat. After initial observation, it became clear to us that the people in the boat were armed. As we got closer, we confirmed that they were Somali pirates.”
As soon as we reached them, they showed strong resistance. They fired at the Coast Guard non-stop. But we quickly got this situation under control. This is a very delicate operation, especially a hostage rescue operation. , thankfully… we were not harmed,” said Major Hans Radegonde, Director of Operations, Seychelles Coast Guard.
Now the Sri Lankan vessel ‘Lorenzo Supa-04’ is anchored at the Seychelles Coast Guard Base. The three Somali bandits are in police custody.
Sri Mal Wickramasinghe, the High Commissioner of the State of Seychelles, who was present on this occasion, thanked the Seychelles Coast Guard for the successful rescue operation.
“We are currently discussing the next steps with the Seychelles government. Our fishermen will be sent to Sri Lanka as soon as possible. Regarding the three Somali pirates, I cannot comment as the discussions are still ongoing,” Wickramasinghe told Seashells media.
