Operation Zoulficar successful for the Malagasy forces. Atalanta aircraft engaged
(BRUSSELS2) A combined operation of Malagasy and European forces enabled the release, on Saturday (26 February), of a ship held by pirates in the north of Madagascar, about 150 kilometers from Antsiranana. The 12 pirates on board were arrested and the 25 crew members and passengers were released. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that pirates have been arrested on this island in the Indian Ocean.
A release carried out without bloodshed, according to our Malagasy and Reunionese colleagues. The pirates raised the white flag as the forces arrived. The VM Aly Zoulficar ( Zoulfécar), a Comorian freighter carrying oxen, was captured in early November 2010 while traveling between Tanzania and the Comoros. And it served as a mother ship for several attacks in this area, before being immobilized (probably because of the storm that ravaged Madagascar a few days ago).
Breathless Pirates
The "Zoulficar" operation started a few days earlier. In a somewhat unusual way, in fact. Two pirates left the ship, last Monday (February 21), aboard a skiff, to restock... in Antsiranana, the port of Madagascar. They are intercepted by the Malagasy forces. The pirates are arrested and the 4 hostages they had taken with them as a "human shield" are released. Among them, the captain of the ship (a Comorian). The information collected makes it possible to identify that the pirates are at their wit's end. The ship broke down and drifted off Madagascar.
An Atalanta device to the rescue
The Malagasy forces decide to take over the ship. Comorian soldiers arrive as reinforcements according to information. The CROSS (Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue) in Réunion and its counterpart in Dar Es Salam (Tanzania) are put on alert. A plane from Eunavfor Atalanta, better equipped with electronic equipment, is called to the rescue to locate the place where the ship is. He makes several passes, ends up locating the suspicious ship, and makes a final pass to locate the elements on board, and above all to avoid any "ambush".
Ok. The forces can then go on the attack, as the news from Madagascar. “Accompanied by a medical team and judicial police officers from the gendarmerie, a team of 30 soldiers from the 2nd Intervention Forces Regiment (RFI) and Bana (the naval air base of Antsiranana) embarked on Friday , aboard the patrol boat MV Marina, with weapons, baggage, food, inflatable boats and transmission equipment.
The pirates are brought under control on Saturday morning (February 26). On board of Zoulficar, we will only find some 30 liters of water and a few bags of rice. But no weapons. Faithful to their technique, the pirates threw everything on board...
(NVP)
