Somalia — EU NAVFOR warship HNLMS Johan de Witt block Pirate access to the sea

EU NAVFOR HNLMS Johan de Witt has effec­tive­ly blocked known pirate camp on the Soma­li coast from access to the open sea.

One of the four land­ing crafts that EU NAVFOR war­ship Johan de Witt is car­ry­ing, out­side of cen­tral Soma­lia coast. Source: EU NAVFOR

As an amphibi­ous ship, HNLMS Johan de Witt is able, from a dock with­in the ship, to launch a num­ber of small­er ves­sels, LCVPs (Land­ing craft for vehi­cle and per­son­nel trans­port), that can pro­vide a blockad­ing role on select­ed known pirate areas of the Soma­li coast. 

Under orders from the Swedish EU NAVFOR Force Head­quar­ters Ship Carl­skro­na, the war­ship Johan de Witt was posi­tioned on the Soma­li coast to pro­vide sur­veil­lance and recon­nais­sance patrols with the aim of gain­ing use­ful infor­ma­tion while restrict­ing and inter­dict­ing pirate move­ment on the coast. With the onset of the mon­soon, increas­ing­ly poor weath­er con­di­tions mak­ing pirate activ­i­ties very dif­fi­cult, cre­at­ing an urgency amongst the pirates to get to sea quickly. 

EU NAVFOR HNLMS Johan de Witt is pro­vid­ing an excel­lent block­ing force and very effec­tive­ly deny­ing pirate access to the high sea at a time when wors­en­ing weath­er con­di­tions is mak­ing pirate oper­a­tions increas­ing­ly more difficult. 

EU NAVFOR Soma­lia – Oper­a­tion ATALANTA’s main tasks are to escort mer­chant ves­sels car­ry­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid of the World Food Pro­gramme (WFP) and ves­sels of African Union Mis­sion in Soma­lia, AMISOM and to pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble ves­sels in the Gulf of Aden and Indi­an Ocean and to deter and dis­rupt pira­cy. EU NAVFOR also mon­i­tors fish­ing activ­i­ty off the coast of Somalia. 

Press release
EU NAVFOR