Somalia’s U.N. Mission says pirates hijacked a yacht carrying four U.S. citizens in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast.
Omar Jamal, first secretary at the Somali mission, identified the yacht as the S/V Quest.
He said Friday that the mission is calling for the immediate release of the hostages and all other captives who are in the hands of the pirates.
Mr. Jamal said the hijacking raises “serious concern” as it follows the sentencing Thursday of a Somali pirate who kidnapped and brutalized the captain of a U.S.-flagged merchant ship off the coast of Africa in 2009. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Mr. Jamal said the mission again appeals to the international community to help curb the ever increasing acts of piracy.
