Pirates hijack Pakistani ship off Somali coast

MOGADISHU (92 News) – Just days after an Indian cargo ship was commandeered and dragged to an infamous pirate den, a Pakistani-owned cargo vessel was hijacked off the coast of central Somalia on Wednesday.

This was the fourth ship waylaid by Somali pirates in the last month.

The number of crew on the ship remains unknown.

Piracy on the high seas near off Somalia had reached its peak between 2008 and 2012, but had since subsided. At the peak of the piracy crisis in January 2011, 736 hostages and 32 boats were held.

In the past, pirates have hit just about anything that floated: yachts, freighters, dhows, sailboats, mammoth oil tankers — even an American naval ship, by mistake. But the piracy heydays were thought to be over. Until now, the problem seemed to have disappeared.

Analysts said a number of factors had driven the resurgence in piracy, including drought, famine, corruption, a surge of smuggled weapons and the influence of the Islamic State.