CAIRO (AFP) – Somali pirates hijacked an Egyptian cargo ship with a crew of 28 near the coast of Somalia, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Thursday.
About 15 pirates, some of them heavily-armed, attacked the Blue Star, which carried 6,000 tonnes of fertilizer, near Bab al-Mandab at it was headed east, said foreign ministry official Ahmed Rizq.
"The crew are hostages ... there are efforts underway to conduct the necessary talks to free the ship," Rizq said in the statement.
More than 100 attacks occurred in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of the lawless Horn of Africa country in 2008 alone.
Pirates had captured an Egyptian ship with a crew of 25 in September, holding them for almost a month before setting them free. Egypt said it did not pay a ransom for the crew and ship.
The pirates have been undeterred by the presence of foreign navies patrolling in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in a bid to secure one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
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