Operation Atalanta - Operation

Operation

On 2 January 2009, one of the Operation's ships captured eight pirates who were about to board a ship.

On 18 February 2009, it was reported that Switzerland was considering joining the Operation either by direct troop contribution or other means, such as helicopters or funds.

Commodore Antonios Papaioannou from the Hellenic Navy became afloat commander of Task Force, reporting to Rear Admiral Jones in Northwood, in early 2009.

On 14 April, the French frigate Nivôse attached to Operation Atalanta captured 11 suspected pirates together with their mother ship and two skiffs in an EU NAVFOR focused operation carried out in the Indian Ocean. The French ship responded to the distress message by the 21,000 tonne Liberia flagged MV Safmarine Asia which came under small arms and RPG attack from two skiffs operating to a pirate mother ship. The warship deployed its helicopter which quickly arrived on the scene to deter the hijacking and shadow the mother vessel until the frigate arrived.

From 15 May 2009, the EU Naval Task Force was joined by two Swedish corvettes, HMS Stockholm and HMS Malmö, and their tender HMS Trossö. They were transported from Sweden mid-April on the back of a dock ship and arrived in Djibouti three weeks later.

On 26 May 2009, the EU Naval Task Force vessel HMS Malmö responded to a distress call from the European cargo vessel M/V Antonis and apprehended seven suspected pirates.

From 5 to 7 March 2010, mission forces from France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden were in action, with the French frigate Nivôse (F 732) having secured its "biggest seizure" so far in the vital shipping lane, with 35 pirates arrested and four mother ships seized in three days off Somalia.

In May 2010, there were a number of actions in the area. Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov freed the 106,474-ton MV Moscow University carrying crude oil from Sudan to China about 350 miles east of Socotra. Two days later, though, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had proved impossible to establish the pirates’ citizenship or to establish legal grounds for prosecuting, so the pirates were put back on their boat and set free. In another action, the Greek warship the Elli captured a high-speed skiff with seven people aboard 50 miles south of Mukalla. In a third action, Swedish aircraft attached to the EU Naval Force, the French warship Lafayette, and the Dutch warship HNLMS Johan de Witt collaborated in the spotting and capture of a pirate action group composed of a whaler and two skiffs about 400 miles northwest of the Seychelles Islands. And two South Korean vessels were attacked, one escaping and one being held about 4 miles off the coast of Somalia, with a South Korean warship nearby. The report on these actions, citing other news reports, concluded that pirates were holding almost 20 vessels and about 300 crew members then seized.

In December 2010, Estonia became the 26th nation to contribute to Operation Atalanta. Estonia provided a vessel protection detachment, which initially operated onboard German Frigate FGS Hamburg. In January 2011 Lithuania provided an officer to the operational headquarters.

On 15 May 2012, EU naval forces conducted their first raid on pirate bases on the Somalia mainland as part of the operation, saying they 'destroyed several boats'. The forces were transported by helicopter to the pirate bases near the port of Harardhere. The attack was carried out overnight, and, according to the European forces, no local residents were hurt during the mission.