Nairobi/Mogadishu - Somali insurgents have entered the port town of Harardhere to tackle pirates who seized a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying 100 million dollars of crude oil, reports said Friday. Various media, quoting local sources, said that a group of Islamist insurgents, angry that the hijackers had seized a ship from a Muslim country, had turned up with the intention of confronting the pirates.
Some analysts have said Islamist insurgents battling the government in south and central Somalia have links to the pirates.
The pirate groups themselves deny these links, and anecdotal evidence suggests they are using the money to fund lavish lifestyles rather than help the insurgents.
Piracy also declined in 2006 during the Union of Islamic Courts brief period of control in Somalia. The Islamic regime was toppled with the help of Ethiopian troops, sparking a bloody insurgency.
The Sirius Star has been anchored off Haradhere since Tuesday.
The pirates have reportedly demanded a 25-million-dollar ransom for the tanker, which they seized over the weekend around 830 kilometres southeast of the Kenyan port of Mombasa - way outside the normal piracy danger zones in the Gulf of Aden.
The ship, which is owned by Vela International Marine Limited, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, was carrying a full load of 2 million barrels of oil when it was seized.
Piracy off the Horn of Africa nation has surged in recent months. Another three ships have been seized since the Sirius Star was taken.
Prior to the latest seizures, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said there had been 92 attempts at piracy in the region this year, 36 of them successful.
Around 17 vessels are in the hands of pirates along with over 300 crew members.
The surge in piracy has prompted increased patrols by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia, the US-led coalition forces, India and France along the Somali coast.
The European Union has also authorized a force of between five and seven frigates, which is expected to arrive in the Gulf of Aden early December.
German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung promised UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon assistance in the fight against piracy off the Somalia coast during a meeting Thursday in New York.
The German parliament, the Bundestag, is to decide in December whether to participate in the EU's anti-piracy operations
The increased naval presence has not deterred the pirates as they pursue huge ransoms.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula Friday said that pirates had earned around 150 million dollars in ransoms this year.
However, this estimate is significantly higher than the figure of 30 million dollars, accepted by the UN and published by London-based think tank Chatham house in October.
Shipping firms and the international community are demanding firmer action against the pirates, and this seems to be slowly coming.
The Indian navy earlier this week destroyed a pirate mothership for the first time. It is expected to take more aggressive action after receiving permission to actively pursue pirates, Indian media reports said Friday.
But shipping companies are becoming increasingly nervous and are beginning to avoid the Gulf of Aden -a busy shipping channel which forms part of the route linking the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal.
Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk said Friday that some of its slower vessels or ones that sail low in the water will stop using the Gulf of Aden.
The company said the vessels would use alternate routes along the south of the Cape of Good Hope and east of Madagascar.
