Somali pirates demand ransom for German tourists (2nd Roundup)

Jun 24, 2008, 18:59 GMT

Mogadishu - Somali pirates Tuesday demanded a ransom for the release of German couple they kidnapped from a yacht sailing in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden.

'The foreigners invaded our waters,' a spokesperson for the group holding the middle-aged couple from Southern Germany said.

The couple were abducted early Monday as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden on a trip from Egypt to Thailand.

Early reports had claimed that four Europeans were kidnapped, including a pilot and a young child, but the pirates said they were holding only the couple.

The district commissioner of the Las Korey area Yusuf Jama Dabeed said that troops from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland found the yacht abandoned on the shore, but that by that point the kidnappers had taken their captives into the mountains.

It is believed that the kidnapping was an opportunistic action that involved both pirates and local fishermen.

The German Foreign Office said that it was attempting to find more information on the kidnapping.

Piracy is rife off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation. Cargo ships and luxury yachts have been targeted by heavily-armed pirates, who then hold the crew ransom.

Puntland authorities have in the past criticized the practice of paying ransoms, saying it only encourages more piracy.

The most high-profile case in recent months involved the capture of a luxury French yacht in April. French troops rescued the hostages and captured six of the pirates, although another six are believed to have escaped.

The UN Security Council recently approved incursions into Somali waters to curb piracy, which the weak transitional government, currently engaged in countering a bloody insurgency, is powerless to prevent.

Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.