French frigate Somali Pirate Incident Explained

The French frigate Somali Pirate Incident was a significant event that occurred in 2008.

On April 8, 2008, a French frigate, the Somalie, intercepted a pirate vessel off the coast of Somalia.

The Somali pirates had been involved in several hijackings in the region, and the French navy was working to disrupt their operations.

In this incident, the Somali pirates attempted to hijack a French fishing vessel, but were thwarted by the French frigate.

A different take: French Frigate Marocain

Pirate activity has sharply increased in recent months in the open seas off the Horn of Africa.

The French Navy has been actively responding to these incidents, with their destroyer Bainbridge answering a distress call from an American cargo ship that was attacked on Tuesday evening.

11 people suspected of being pirates were detained by French forces during an assault on a pirate "mother ship" in the Indian Ocean off Somalia on Wednesday.

The "mother ship" was actually a 30-foot boat being used as a floating base about 460 miles off the Somali coast.

The French forces found firearms and equipment along with 17 barrels of fuel on the boat.

A helicopter from the French frigate Nivôse arrived on the scene after a distress call from a Liberian-flagged container ship, the Safmarine Asia, which had been attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire.

The Nivôse took the boat and the skiffs in tow and headed for Mombasa, Kenya.

Three pirates taken prisoner in a previous operation have been sent to France.

The French forces initially responded to the attack on the Safmarine Asia, which was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire from two small pirate skiffs on Tuesday night.

Captain Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by pirates last week, was still on the Bainbridge when it responded to the attack on Tuesday.

Take a look at this: RMS Empress of Asia