Puntland forces free hijacked oil tanker Sibu 1 off Somalia’s coast, all 20 crew safe

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Puntland’s maritime police force freed the oil tanker MT Sibu 1 on Friday, ending a five-week hijacking off Somalia’s northern coast after a 48-hour operation that left all 20 crew members unharmed, regional officials said.

The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) said its units stormed the Eritrean-flagged tanker in waters off the Mudug coast, disarming the pirates holding it and securing the vessel without casualties among the hostages. Mohamed Jama, a PMPF commander involved in the raid, said the assault had been underway for two days before the ship was retaken.

“The ship is free and the pirates are all in the hands of our forces,” Jama said.

Footage shared online showed PMPF forces firing as they approached the tanker before boarding and disarming the pirates found aboard.

Six armed men seized the Sibu 1 on August 20 roughly 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency, then steered the tanker toward the Puntland coast. It is the sixth commercial vessel hijacked off the Horn of Africa since April, part of a piracy resurgence in waters that had seen attacks fall sharply over the past decade.

The tanker was carrying about 228,000 barrels of gasoil and had been bound for Port Sudan when it was taken. It is managed by the UAE-based Qatrat Alnada Almasi Ship Management and was placed under U.S. Treasury sanctions last year over allegations it belonged to a shadow fleet moving Iranian petroleum products in breach of American sanctions.

Puntland authorities said the crew of 20 — 16 Indian nationals, two Syrians, one Iraqi and one Sudanese — were all safe.

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