The MV Golden Nori is a Japanese chemical tanker that was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia on 28 October 2007. In news reports, she has at times been mistakenly referred to as the Golden Nory and Golden Mori. At the time of the hijacking the 23 person crew was composed of citizens of South Korea, the Philippines, and Myanmar. One of the South Korean crew members successfully escaped soon after being taken hostage.
The Action of 28 October 2007 was part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa, the military operation defined by the United States for combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa. The incident occurred when United States Navy units acted to interdict piracy in the region.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea, in Somali territorial waters and other areas. It was initially a threat to international fishing vessels, expanding to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War, around 2000.
See also: 2007 in piracy, other events of 2008, 2009 in piracy and the list of 'years of Piracy'.
MV Faina is a roll-on/roll-off cargo ship operated by a Ukrainian company that sails under a Belize flag of convenience, owned by Panama City-based Waterlux AG, and managed by Tomex Team of Odessa, 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.
The MV Delight is a Hong Kong-flagged grain carrier. It was attacked and hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Yemen in the Horn of Africa by Somali pirates on 18 November 2008 at 2 p.m. The Delight, chartered by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, was carrying a cargo of 36,000 tonnes of wheat, and was heading for Iran's Bandar Abbas port. The 25 crew members are from India (7), Pakistan (2), Philippines (7), Iran (7), Ghana (2). The ship was released on 10 January 2009.
The MT Stolt Valor is a Hong Kong-flagged ship that was hijacked while in the Designated Safety Corridor within the Gulf of Aden, approximately 38 nautical miles (70 km) away from the coast of Yemen, while heading from the United States south through the Gulf towards Asia. After the ship passed through the Suez Canal, it encountered hijackers and alerted the International Maritime Bureau. Area coalition forces arrived too late to avert the hijacking which occurred at 10:16 UTC on September 15, 2008 by Somali pirates.
The MV Yasa Neslihan is a bulk cargo ship owned and operated by the Istanbul based Turkish company YA-SA Denizcilik A.Ş., a subsidiary of YA-SA Holding A.Ş., sailing under a Marshall Islands flag of convenience. She joined company's fleet on November 14, 2005.
The MV Karagöl is an oil/chemical tanker owned and operated by the Istanbul based Turkish company YDC Denizcilik A.Ş., sailing under Turkish flag. The marine company is also partnered by the ruling AK Party's Istanbul deputy Hasan Kemal Yardımcı.
The Maersk Alabama hijacking was a series of maritime events that began on 8 April 2009 with four pirates in the Indian Ocean seizing the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama 240 nautical miles southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the U.S. Navy on 12 April 2009. It was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the American flag since the early 19th century: many news reports referenced the last pirate seizure as being during the Second Barbary War in 1815, although other incidents had occurred as late as 1821. It was the sixth vessel in a week to be attacked by pirates who had previously extorted ransoms in the tens of millions of dollars.
The Cheonghae Anti-piracy Unit was established by the Republic of Korea Navy to protect civilian ships near the coast of Somalia under Combined Task Force 151. The naval task force is named after the historical 9th-century Korean military base Cheonghaejin.
Samho Dream is a South Korean, Marshall-Island flagged supertanker that was carrying oil from Iraq to the United States when it was hijacked by Somali pirates on April 4, 2010. At the time, the vessel was manned by 24 crew: five South Koreans and nineteen Filipinos. The owner of the craft, Korea-based SH Tankers Limited said a pirate source named Mohamed had said the ship was heading for Haradheere, the pirates' base at which many ships are held during ransom negotiations. On November 6, 2010, after being held for 217 days, the ship was released from under pirate control for a ransom of about $9 million.
The following lists events that happened in 2009 in Somalia.
