By The Conversation
On the evening of April 26, the Egyptian merchant vessel Sward was hijacked by armed men a few miles off the Somali coast. It was steered towards an anchorage near the port of Garacad in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in north-eastern Somalia.
Over the following days, further armed men joined the Sward as well as an interpreter tasked with negotiating a ransom with the shipowner. At the time of writing, the ship remains under pirate control.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event. Two oil tankers – the Palau-flagged Honour 25 and the Togo-flagged Eureka – were seized around the same time and redirected towards the Puntland coast.
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