PIRATES have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia, Somali officials and a piracy expert said yesterday. It is the first hijacking of a large commercial vessel there since 2012.

    The United Arab Emirates-owned Aris 13 Monday reported being approached by two skiffs, John Steed with the organization Oceans Beyond Piracy said. About eight crew members were aboard the Sri Lankan-flagged ship, which had been carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, Steed said.

    An official in the semiautonomous state of Puntland said over two dozen men boarded the ship off Somalia’s northern coast. Another official in Puntland said the ship was being moved toward the coast. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

    A spokeswoman for the European Union Naval Force operation off Somalia, Flt. Lt. Louise Tagg, confirmed that an incident involving an oil tanker had occurred off Somalia’s coast and an investigation was under way.

    Piracy off Somalia’s coast was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near the country, whose weak central government has been trying to assert itself after a quarter-century of conflict.

    But frustrations have been rising among local fishermen, including former pirates, at what they say are foreign fishermen illegally fishing in local waters.

    Salad Nur, an elder in Alula, a coastal town in Puntland, told The Associated Press by telephone that young fishermen including former pirates have hijacked the ship.

    Steed said this would be the first commercial pirate attack off Somalia since 2012.

    (SD-Agencies)