Western naval forces have seized a second large weapons cache following the boarding of a dhow in the Northern Indian Ocean.
French naval vessel FS Provence, operating as part of Combined Task Force 150 (CTF150), intercepted the vessel heading towards Somalia.
The dhow was spotted heading toward Somalia by Provence’s helicopter whilst it was undertaking routine surveillance in the Northern Indian Ocean.
Subsequently, the Provence boarded the dhow and determined that it was without nationality.
A subsequent search of the vessel uncovered the weapons which included several hundred AK47 assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank weapons.
“As illicit weapons were deemed to be destined for Somalia, they were seized under the United Nations Security Council mandated arms embargo,” a CTF150 spokesman said.
This is the second such seizure of weapons bound for the former piracy hot spot of Somalia by CTF150 in less than three weeks.
In early March Australian naval vessel HMAS Darwin recovered 2,000 AK-47s from fishing boat off coast of Oman.
CMF is a multinational effort to prevent terrorism, piracy and drug smuggling, encourage regional cooperation and promote a secure maritime environment in the Middle East and off the east coast of Africa.
In late January the shipping industry was warned that it faced an increased risk of piracy off Somalia this year due to the deteriorating political conditions in the country, according to a report by IHS Inc.
“Conditions that led regional politicians to provide safe havens between 2005 and 2012 for hijacked ships to be stored during lengthy ransom negotiations are being recreated in Somalia’s Galmudug region,” the US-based research firm said.
“This means that Somali pirates, who still have the technical capabilities, manpower, weaponry and financing networks to organize deep-water hijacks, may soon regain the secure ship-storage locations required to resume operations.”
