Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA) is a component of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) is the primary military component assigned to accomplish the objectives of the mission. The naval component is the multinational Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) which operates under the direction of the United States Fifth Fleet. Both of these organizations have been historically part of United States Central Command. In February 2007, United States President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the United States Africa Command which took over all of the area of operations of CJTF-HOA in October 2008.
The action of 3 June 2007 occurred after a United States Navy dock landing ship attacked pirates hijacking a freighter.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding areas. It was initially a threat to international fishing vessels, expanding to international shipping since the Consolidation of states within Somalia (1998–2006) of the Somali Civil War, around 2000.
The MV Stolt Strength is a Philippines-flagged ship, managed by a Panamanian company. It was hijacked by Somali pirates off the Gulf of Aden on November 10, 2008. The chemical tanker, carrying phosphoric acid and 21 Filipino crewmembers aboard, was attacked by men carrying automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The ship's owner, Sagana Shipping, of Manila, was awaiting word from the pirates regarding ransom.
Operation Atalanta, formally European Union Naval ForceSomalia, is a current 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). The operational headquarters is currently located at the Spanish Operation Headquarters (ESOHQ) at Naval Station Rota in Spain, having moved from London as a result of the British withdrawal from the EU.
Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) is a multinational naval task force, set up in 2009 as a response to piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia. Its mission is to disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea and to engage with regional and other partners to build capacity and improve relevant capabilities in order to protect global maritime commerce and secure freedom of navigation. It operates in conjunction with the EU's Operation Atalanta and NATO's Operation Ocean Shield.
MV Tygra is a container ship previously owned by Maersk Line Limited and operated by Waterman Steamship Corporation, now owned by Element Shipmanagement SA of Piraeus.
The Maersk Alabamahijacking led to a series of maritime events that began on 8 April 2009, when four pirates in the Indian Ocean seized the cargo ship Maersk Alabama at a distance of 240 nautical miles southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the United States Navy on 12 April.
The April 2009 raid off Somalia was a military operation conducted by France and Germany to retake the French yacht Tanit on 9 April 2009, a yacht which had been captured by Somali pirates on 4 April 2009. It occurred during Operation Atalanta, a European Union mission in Somali waters. The pirates had attempted to extract a ransom by holding the yacht's occupants hostage, but were ultimately defeated when the French Navy assaulted them.
The MV Buccaneer is a commercial tugboat captured by Somali pirates on 11 April 2009. 10 of the 16 crew members are Italian. The others are five Romanians and a Croatian.
The MV Safmarine Asia is a ship operated by the South African shipping company Safmarine that was unsuccessfully attacked by Somali pirates on 14 April 2009. A French frigate, the Nivôse, responded to the vessel's distress call, and in the process, found and apprehended 11 Somali pirates. There were tried for piracy in Kenya. The pirates were then landed at Mombasa for trial in Kenya on 22 April 2009.
Richard Phillips is an American merchant mariner and author who served as captain of the MV Maersk Alabama during its hijacking by Somali pirates in April 2009.
"Fatbeard" is the seventh episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 188th overall episode of the series, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 22, 2009 and in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2009. It was the mid-season finale, marking the final South Park episode for six months. In the episode, Cartman misinterprets news reports about piracy in the Indian Ocean to mean the return of the classic era of swashbuckling pirates, and misleads a handful of South Park boys to voyage to Mogadishu to start a pirate crew.
The MV Almezaan is a general cargo vessel active off the Horn of Africa. Originally built as the Tarcau, she was renamed in November 2001. The name can be translated from Arabic as "the balance" or "the scales" as well as justice and equity.
The following lists events that happened in 2009 in Somalia.
Johann M.K. Blumenthal