Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi Arabian supertanker moved the vessel from its location at the port city of Harardhere to an unknown location, a regional maritime official disclosed on Monday.
Andrew Mwangura, East Africa's Coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Program said the tanker was taken out to high sea and its destination is not clear.
"The pirates moved the Saudi oil tanker to high seas but I have not established its destination. The pirates may have feared they could be attacked by the Islamist groups in Somalia," Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone.
Mwangura's remarks came as Somali pirates holding the Sirius Star, laden with 2 million barrels of oil worth about 100 million U.S. dollars near Harardhere have reduced their ransom demands from 25 million dollars to 15 million dollars.
The pirates had acted after threats from Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group, to attack the tanker.
The pirates hijacked the vessel on Nov. 15 about 833 km off Somalia. Reports from Somalia say that Islamists from different Somali factions are descending on the country's pirate coast, raising fears that a battle is looming over millions of dollars in ransom cash being demanded for the captured supertanker Sirius Star.
The vessel was sailing from the Gulf towards the Cape of Good Hope. The route is heavily used by the largest crude oil tankers, which are unable to use the Suez route and the route previously looked safe from attacks.
The seizure of the Sirius Star has sparked off the small dusty harbor of Harardhere into a flurry of activity with armed men frequenting the town.
Harardhere is in Somalia's semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. The country is in its 18th year of civil war and has not had a functioning central administration since the ouster of former ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
Source: Xinhua
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