Last night, Somali pirates hijacked a Russian oil tanker 550 miles off their country’s coast. The attack on the 106,000 ton tanker, name Moscow University, prompted Russian officials to send a warship to pursue the pirates and hopefully recover the lost oil. The Russian vessel’s records indicate it was carrying 23 crew members and hauling over $52 million in crude oil.

During the same time, a South Korean tanker was also attacked by pirates. Headlines about these pirates have been increasing in numbers, yet not many are taking real action to stop them. These pirates are not only hard to monitor, they are keep moving to make them harder to catch. This doesn’t mean that people are just giving up, there are people taking action against the pirates.

A group calling themselves the Hizbul Islam militia and its leaders promised to end these criminal activities on the high seas and release hostages. Over the weekend the Islam militia stormed the Somali coastal town of Harardhere, forcing the pirates who had been using it as a base to flee. However, an expert on the pirates said “they don’t need a sophisticated base on land. They just need somewhere to refuel, buy guns and repair their boats.”

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