China sends new ships to fight pirates
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China is sending a navy task force to the Gulf of Aden to replace warships deployed to protect merchant vessels from Somali pirates.
The flotilla will comprise the destroyer Shenzhen, the frigate Huangshan, and Weishanhu, a supply ship that also supported the first escort mission, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late on Tuesday, without citing any source.
The force will include more than 800 personnel and two helicopters, the report said.
China last December deployed three vessels to escort merchant ships along Somalia's Indian Ocean coast and the Gulf of Aden after the United Nations Security Council authorised naval forces to fight pirates who seized more than 40 ships last year.
The Chinese force escorted 104 merchant vessels and rescued three international ships from attacks, Xinhua cited Huang Jiaxiang, political commissar of the Navy's South China Sea Fleet, as saying on March 11.
Between January and November last year, 1,265 Chinese commercial ships passed through Somalia's waters, according to China's Foreign Ministry before the escort mission began. About one-fifth of those ships had confrontations with pirates, ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in December.
Seven ships, either owned by China or carrying Chinese cargo and crew, were hijacked, Xinhua said on Tuesday.
The flotilla will comprise the destroyer Shenzhen, the frigate Huangshan, and Weishanhu, a supply ship that also supported the first escort mission, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late on Tuesday, without citing any source.
The force will include more than 800 personnel and two helicopters, the report said.
China last December deployed three vessels to escort merchant ships along Somalia's Indian Ocean coast and the Gulf of Aden after the United Nations Security Council authorised naval forces to fight pirates who seized more than 40 ships last year.
The Chinese force escorted 104 merchant vessels and rescued three international ships from attacks, Xinhua cited Huang Jiaxiang, political commissar of the Navy's South China Sea Fleet, as saying on March 11.
Between January and November last year, 1,265 Chinese commercial ships passed through Somalia's waters, according to China's Foreign Ministry before the escort mission began. About one-fifth of those ships had confrontations with pirates, ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in December.
Seven ships, either owned by China or carrying Chinese cargo and crew, were hijacked, Xinhua said on Tuesday.