Kaalbye Shipping International Ltd or Kaalbye Group is a Ukrainian shipping company which is mostly involved in the transport of military equipment.
The company is headquartered in Odesa, Ukraine but officially registered in the British Virgin Islands. They have branches in other countries such as Belize and work in commercial, chartering and technical management of cargo fleet.
In May 1998, they[ who? ] obtained a Safety Management Certificate which permitted them to run passenger ships in compliance with the requirements of the International Safety Management Code. Annually Kaalbye Shipping transports more than 800,000 tonnes of cargo. In 2000 they purchased the MS Shota Rustaveli , built in 1968. [1]
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On September 25, 2008, a ship named the MV Faina , heading to Mombasa in Kenya (with an alleged end destination of South Sudan) with T-72 tanks and other small arms and ammunition, was captured by Somali pirates. A ransom of $3.2 million was paid for the ship's release. [2] Some sources have reported Kaalbye as the owning and operating company of the ship, [3] [4] [5] though a call to the company could not confirm ownership. [6]
On April 11 2014, the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a Washington, D.C.–based conflict research group, filed a complaint requesting a declaratory judgment and anti-suit injunction in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against Kaalbye Shipping International Ltd, Global Strategic Communications Group (Kaalbye's public relations firm) and Peter Hannaford, senior consultant at GSCP, for shipping arms to Syria, China, Venezuela, and Angola. A report published by C4ADS alleges that Kaalbye Group is closely affiliated with powerful politicians in Russia. [7] The report was cited in the Washington Post and other media. [8]
Kaalbye has been accused of sending arms to Syria to be used in that country's civil war. [9] Kaayble Group has disputed the allegations and the Washington Post would post a correction apologizing for supporting the allegations. [10] [11]
In February 2018, in a legitimate arms sale, the Kaalbye-owned ship OCEAN ENERGY carried T-90S tanks from Ust-Luga in Russia to Umm Qasr in Iraq.
CMA CGM is a French shipping and logistics company founded in 1978 by Jacques Saadé.
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HDMS Esbern Snare (F342) is an Absalon-class frigate and is, along with her sister ship, the HDMS Absalon, amongst the largest combat vessels currently commissioned in the Royal Danish Navy.
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea affects a number of countries in West Africa as well as the wider international community. By 2011, it had become an issue of global concern. Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are often part of heavily armed criminal enterprises, who employ violent methods to steal oil cargo. In 2012, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), Oceans Beyond Piracy and the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Program reported that the number of vessels attacks by West African pirates had reached a world high, with 966 seafarers attacked during the year. According to the Control Risks Group, pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea had by mid-November 2013 maintained a steady level of around 100 attempted hijackings in the year, a close second behind the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Somali Sea, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. It was initially a threat to international fishing vessels during the early 2000s, only to rapidly escalate and expand to international shipping during the War in Somalia (2006–2009).
There were 49 ships reported pirate attacks in the first three months of 2008, up from 41 in that period of 2007. According to the ICC International Maritime Bureau, in those attacks: "Seven crew members were taken hostage, six kidnapped, three killed and one missing – presumed dead." Up until mid-November 2008, more than 90 vessels had been attacked by pirates in the year. At the same time, with a more than 75 per cent increase since the previous year, pirates were holding 13 ships captive in the Somali ports of Eyl and Hobyo.
MV Iran Deyanat is an Iranian ship that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden by 40 pirates with Kalashnikovs and RPGs on August 21, 2008. The crew of the ship numbered 29: a Pakistani captain, 14 Iranians including an engineer, 3 Indians, 2 Filipinos, and 10 Croatians. The ship was freed on October 10, and the crew was unharmed. The ship went underway bound to Oman and then to its final destination at Rotterdam.
MV Faina was a roll-on/roll-off cargo ship operated by a Ukrainian company that sailed under a Belize flag of convenience, owned by Panama City-based Waterlux AG, and managed by Tomex Team of Odesa, Ukraine.
MV Manifa is an oil tanker formally owned and operated by Vela International Marine. With a length overall of 330 m (1,080 ft) and a capacity of 2.2 million barrels (350,000 m3) of crude oil, she is classified as a very large crude carrier or VLCC. Vela is based in the United Arab Emirates and is a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco. Sirius Star is one of Vela's 24 tankers, of which 19 are VLCCs. Since her launch, the ship has been registered in Monrovia under the Liberian flag of convenience. She has since been reflagged to Saudi Arabia
Operation Atalanta, formally European Union Naval ForceSomalia, is an ongoing counter-piracy military operation at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean, that is the first naval operation conducted by the European Union (EU), in support of United Nations resolutions 1814, 1816, 1838, and 1846 adopted in 2008 by the United Nations Security Council. Since 29 March 2019, the operational headquarters is located at Naval Station Rota in Spain, having moved from London as a result of the British withdrawal from the EU.
Piracy in the 21st century has taken place in a number of waters around the globe, including but not limited to, the Gulf of Guinea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Strait of Malacca, Sulu and Celebes Seas, Indian Ocean, and Falcon Lake.
Operation Ocean Shield was NATO's contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA), an anti-piracy initiative in the Indian Ocean, Guardafui Channel, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It follows the earlier Operation Allied Protector. Naval operations began on 17 August 2009 after being approved by the North Atlantic Council, the program was terminated on 15 December 2016 by NATO. Operation Ocean Shield focused on protecting the ships of Operation Allied Provider, which transported relief supplies as part of the World Food Programme's mission in the region. The initiative also helped strengthen the navies and coast guards of regional states to assist in countering pirate attacks. Notably, the Italian Military Support Base in Djibouti contributed to anti-piracy efforts as part of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield, utilizing naval vessels such as the ITS Mimbelli and ITS San Marco in the Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean, and off the coast of Somalia. Additionally, China, Japan and South Korea sent warships to participate in these activities.
The Dai Hong Dan incident took place on 29 October 2007, when the North Korean cargo vessel in the Indian Ocean MV Dai Hong Dan (대홍단호) was attacked and temporarily seized by Somali pirates off Somalia. The following day, the crew of the vessel overpowered the pirates with the support of a US naval vessel.
The following lists events that happened in 2009 in Somalia.
Floating armouries are vessels used to store military grade weapons. Being in possession of military-grade weapons in most jurisdictions is highly controlled. In the early twenty-first century, piracy in international waters became a serious issue for shipping companies. In response, services that supply weapons on the high seas, often referred to as floating armouries, were implemented. These armouries provide transfer services to private maritime security companies (PMSCs); the controlled weapons are available in international waters, but never enter patrolled territorial waters—they are delivered by an armoury to a client's vessel, and returned, in international waters.
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