
Garowe – BTV – Puntland authorities have denied that a vessel off the coast of Puntland was hijacked in the Gardafuu region, according to the Puntland Minister of Fisheries and the Governor of the Gardafuu region.
Puntland’s Minister of Fisheries Mohamud Haji Salah said the ship was not hijacked but was approached by police off the coast of Bareda.
The minister said that the ship was in port with the crew for three days, and the local government sent soldiers to check on their reasons.
The governor of Gardafuu region denied that the ship was hijacked and said that the ship was ”suspicious and we sent the police but the officers disembarked when they realized there was no problem other than a malfunction.”
It was Reuters who reported that the ship, bound for Mogadishu, was hijacked.
This comes less than a week after BenaadirTV broke the special report on new tactics against the shores of Somalia by regional states.