Press Releases

On 26 July, the Russian destroyer ADMIRAL LEVCHENKO began escorting a World Food Programme (WFP) shipment, in support of EU NAVFOR. Force Commander Jan Thörnqvist said:  “This is a clear demonstration of the excellent co-operation between our European Task Force 465 and the Russian Navy”.

The French air defence destroyer JEAN BART has joined the EU NAVFOR Task Force for the period 20th to 31st July.  She is the second of the air defence destroyer class Cassard, with a displacement of 4500 tonnes, a length of 139 meters and a beam of 14 meters.

 A delegation from EU NAVFOR Force Headquarters made a successful visit to the Chief of the Yemeni Coast Guard and Deputy Commander of the Yemeni Navy.

In the early hours of 4 July, the MT Motivator reported it was under small arms fire from a pirate attack in the northern Bab Al Mandeb area in the southern Red Sea. After notification of this attack, attempts were made to make contact with the Motivator but to no avail.

 In the early hours of 28 June, pirates took control of the MV Golden Blessing approximately 90 nautical miles off the northern Somali coast.

On 14 June 2010, Rear Admiral Hudson Peter Hudson CBE handed over the responsibility of Operation Commander of the European Union Naval Force Somalia, Op ATALANTA to Major General Buster Howes OBE.

On 11 June 2010, a ransom drop was made to the pirate group holding the merchant vessel MV ASIAN GLORY at anchor in the vicinity of Garacad on the eastern coast of Somalia.

This afternoon, the crew of MV RIM abandoned the ship on the request of the master. EU NAVFOR warship Johan de Witt was close to the position and engaged in the rescue. The crew of MV RIM are now on board Johan de Witt and will be transferred to a safe port.

Today at 1010 local time, the hijacked Libyan owned merchant vessel RIM reported that the crew had successfully retaken control of the ship.  One of the crew members was seriously injured during the incident.

In the early hours of 2 June it was reported by the owner of the MV QSM Dubai that a group of armed pirates had boarded the ship and taken control. USS COLE from CTF 508 (NATO) first reported that they had seen a person with an RPG on board.

The EU NAVFOR Force Commander hosted the Force Commander of Task Force 151, the Combined Maritime Force off Somalia, on board the EU NAVFOR Flag Ship HSwMS Carlskrona on Monday 31 May 2010.  The Force Commanders expressed content with the very good level of co-operation between the two force