News

All Basque political parties and citizens rallied on Friday in the Basque coastal town of Bermeo to demand the end of the hijacking of a Basque fishing boat by Somali pirates.

The rally was convened by local representatives from the five Bizkaian towns Bermeo, Mundaka, Ondarroa, Santurtzi and Sestao, where members of the Alakrana crew have their residence.

Members of the Basque Government did not join the rally as their role "is not to join a momentary rally but to be everyday with the relatives (of the members of the Alakrana crew) and keep on working for the release of the boat", a Basque official said.

Somali pirates overran the tuna boat Alakrana in the Indian Ocean on Oct. 2 and took hostage its multinational crew of 36. The pirates are still in control of the boat from the Basque Country in northern Spain.

The boat had been fishing for tuna 800 miles from the nearest navy escort when it was boarded by pirates. It was the second attack on the Alakrana in less than a month after the captain had to take evasive action to dodge a pirate approach on Sept. 4.

Somali pirate gangs have caused havoc to shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years, emboldened by millions of dollars in ransom payments.

But foreign navies were deployed off the Gulf of Aden at the beginning of the year and have guarded convoys along a transit corridor for merchant ships to pass through vulnerable points.

The number of attacks have now fallen in the Gulf of Aden, but pirates now sail further afield into the Indian Ocean where the vast open sea makes it harder to detect their small craft.

Spain has tried to garner support from Somalia''s government to free the crew aboard the Alakrana. But the government only controls a small portion of the country, the rest of which is run by breakaway groups and Islamist rebels.