Four European tourists seized from yacht in Somali waters

Africa News

Jun 24, 2008, 6:18 GMT

Mogadishu - Four European citizens have been seized from a yacht off Somalia's pirate-infested coast, officials said Tuesday. The district commissioner of the Las Korey area said that the four - the pilot of the yacht plus a family of three - were abducted overnight on Sunday as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden. The kidnappers then abandoned the yacht on the shore and disappeared inland with their hostages, believed to be of German or French nationalities. Piracy is rife off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation. Cargo ships and luxury yachts have been targeted by the heavily-armed pirates, who then hold the crew ransom. The UN Security Council recently approved incursions into Somali waters to curb piracy, which the weak transitional government, currently engaged in countering a bloody insurgency, is powerless to prevent. Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

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