April 2008

Owned by French charter company CMA-CGM, Le Ponant was en route to the Mediterranean from the Seychelles when pirates boarded the vessel on April 4th 2008. Le Ponant had a 30-strong crew on board of 22 French nationals, six Filipinos, a Ukrainian and a Cameroonian.

The three-masted, 32-cabin vessel, was taken under the pirates control to Garacad, south of the port of Eyl in Somalia, where it spent a week while negotiations were under way between representatives of the pirates and CMA CGM and the French authorities. Local sources indicated that it had probably been seized by the Somali Marines, described as a highly organised group of pirates with warlord protection and a separate “business” structure for ransom negotiations.

On 11 April it was reported that French special forces had detained six Somali pirates and recovered an alleged $1M in ransom money in an airborne raid after the pirates released the cruise ship Le Ponant.

AFP quoted French defence minister Herve Morin as saying that Somali authorities had authorised the operation. Wide press coverage quoted French military leaders describing the helicopter raid on the pirates as they regrouped ashore after leaving the ship. The exercise is said to have been timed so that the newly released hostage crew and officers of Le Ponant were safely aboard another French carrier before the raid.

Four helicopters were involved in the action to prevent the pirates getting away in a vehicle. Six of the pirates were taken into custody, while at least eight others got away, according to the UK’s Independent newspaper.

The commandos are also believed to have repossessed $1M in cash out of $2M in ransom that had been handed over to the pirates by French shipowner CMA CGM. The six detainees were taken to France for trial.

Le Ponant was taken to Djibouti, where France has a major military base.