Tuesday, September 16, 2008
"The Puntland administration welcomes the steps taken by the French commandos in combating piracy," Puntland presidential adviser Bille Mohamoud Qabowsade told AFP.
The French army carried out an operation late on Monday in which one pirate was killed and six others captured, the French presidential palace announced Tuesday.
Jean-Yves Delanne and his wife Bernadette, sailing fanatics who were captured by pirates on board their Venezuelan-registered yacht Carre d'as in the Gulf of Aden, were freed in the daring raid.
The yacht had been seized off the coast of Puntland on September 2. Local officials and village elders had reported that the pirates demanded as much $2-million (about R16-million) in ransom for the pair's release.
"The state of Puntland encourages such steps and calls on other governments whose nationals are being held to do the same thing the French have done," Qabowsade said.
Somalia's long and largely unpatrolled coastline is infested with pirates, making the Gulf of Aden and neighbouring areas in the Indian Ocean among the most dangerous waters in the world.
Several ships are currently being held following a flurry of attacks by pirates. The vessels are sometimes held for weeks and generally released after large ransoms are paid by governments or ship owners.
France is the only country so far to have taken military action.
French commandos captured six pirates on April 11 after Somali pirates seized a luxury sailing ship with its 30 crew, including 22 French nationals, and held them for a week. The six have since been held in the Paris region.
Source: AFP, Sept 16, 2008