Somali Pirates Bringing Dumbas For Sailors Of MV Abdullah

Pirates are bringing dumbas (Thick-tailed sheep) and goats from the shore for the sailors of MV Abdullah, a ship owned by Kabir Group of Chittagong, held hostage off the coast of Somalia.

The owners of the hostage ship and the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers Association confirmed this information to the media about the sailors. However, the sailors are a bit worried about the reduction of fresh water in the ship.

Earlier, on March 12, Somali pirates took MV Abdullah hostage along with 23 Bangladeshi sailors in the Indian Ocean. They later took the ship near the coast of Somalia. The vessel is currently anchored one and a half nautical miles off the coast of Jifal in Somalia's Gadhavjiran district.

Shakhawat Hossain said that usually there are two types of food in the ship, frozen and dry. Depending on how long the journey will take, food is kept on the ship. But dry food can be stored for many days. Pirates usually provide food if ships are taken hostage. But there is a problem with fresh water. In that case the situation has to be dealt with by rationing.

A leader of the seamen's union said there was not much concern about food, according to information received from sailors aboard the hostage ship. Because the pirates are bringing dumbas and goats on the ship. But there are concerns about clean water. Because, the pirates are not able to supply fresh water to the ship. As a result, the fresh water on board has to be rationed. Due to the crisis, sailors are now using the fresh water of the ship for an hour two days a week. That is, they get clean water only two hours a week.

The ship had 25 days of rations for sailors and 200 tons of fresh water when the MV Abdullah was taken hostage. The sailors said that they could run for a month with this water.

They said, but rationing can run for a long time. To save water, sailors are now only using fresh water for cooking and food.