Somali pirates attempted to hijack a ship Thursday nightin the Mogadishu port but were eventually scared away by a rescueeffort. The Syrian captain on the Panama-flagged ship was killed in theincident.
The African Union forces and Somali police responded after receiving a distress call from the ship.
ButBarigye Ba-hoku, the spokesman for African Union peacekeeping missionin Somalia, known as AMISOM, says that by the time his forces gotthere, the pirates had already climbed aboard the vessel.
"Wereacted very quickly and tried to prevent these characters fromboarding on to the ship, but unfortunately by the time we reacted, someof them had already succeeded and accessed the ship and had evenmanaged to reach the cabin crew area," said Ba-hoku.
The AMISOM spokesperson claimed he did not have knowledge of ship's cargo, but the boat was reportedly en route from Dubai.
Ba-hoku says that after some shots were exchanged, the pirates fled the ship.
"Wedeterred them, we were able to stop them from taking the ship. I'm notaware if they took any other valuables, but what is a fact is that theship was saved, it was rescued, and it was delivered to the harbor, andit is still there," he said.
But the captain was killed after reportedly refusing to turn the ship back out to sea.
"Thegunman injured the captain of the ship, and he later succumbed to hiswounds and died. And another crew member was also injured; he'sundergoing treatment," said Ba-hoku.
Piracy off the lawless Somali coast has plagued ships along the popular sea route that hooks around the Horn of Africa.
Thelucrative ransoms negotiated with the vessels' owners for the releaseof their cargo has fueled the piracy business in the country which haslargely stagnated in violent anarchy for almost two decades.
Incidentsof Somali piracy has waned in the past few months as monsoon season hasmade the offshore waters more dangerous for the opportunistic gangs.
Someshipping companies have begun sending their ships along differentroutes to avoid areas nearby the Somali shore, but the importance ofthe Gulf of Aden route has kept many more still braving its waters.
Anumber of different countries have sent navy patrols to the importantsea route, but the immensity of the area targeted by the pirates haslimited the effect of these few military ships.
The option ofarming the private ships to protect against hijacking is complicated bycommon port laws which ban private firearms within port waters.
The seaport is one of three main sites in Mogadishu protected by the AMISOM forces.