LONDON, May 23– The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday that multiple incidents of suspicious activity have been reported in the Gulf of Aden, where several vessels were approached by skiffs carrying weapons and ladders.
According to the advisory, in one case, a larger skiff equipped with two outboard engines was observed carrying both weapons and ladders.
Earlier the same day, the UKMTO reported that the master of a products tanker said the vessel had been approached by a small craft with five people on board while sailing roughly 200 nautical miles west of Yemen’s Socotra island.
The closest point of approach was about 100 meters, the report said, adding that the vessel’s armed security team was deployed, after which the small craft altered course and moved away.
Amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the redeployment of security forces in surrounding waters, threats and hijacking incidents targeting commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia have been on the rise.
On May 2, Yemen’s coast guard said an unidentified armed group hijacked a tanker in southern Yemeni waters, with the vessel later heading toward the Somali coast. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
