Members of France's GIGN, a military police counter-terrorism unit, have been sent to Djibouti, which neighbors Somalia to the North and hosts nearly 3,000 French soldiers.The French luxury yacht "Ponant" was hijacked by Somali pirates on Friday as it passed through the Gulf of Aden en route from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean Sea. The yacht was carrying 30 crew members, the majority French citizens, but no other passengers.
The yacht had been sighted off the coast of Puntland, a relatively stable semi-autonomous region in Somalia's north. But Puntland officials say the hijackers have moved into southern Somalia.
Puntland's minister of information Abdirahman Bangah says his government lacks the capacity to go after such pirates and has not been involved in the French response. "We did not communicate with anyone in France," he said. "Those people [hijackers], they do not call us, they call straight to the owners. And we do not have an ability to catch those people. We do not have much capacity to run after the coastal areas. They are not in our hands. We do not have coastal guards."
| What's missing is the part where he says, "nevertheless, we condemn this piracy in the strongest terms and will support the French government in every way possible. We warn these murderous pirates that they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law." VOA must have snipped that part. |
French officials have said the crew has not been harmed and that their safety is the top priority in the French response. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner kept open the possibility of paying ransom to the hijackers.