Roma (Sunatimes) Italy has asked the Somali prime minister for help in freeing an Italian ship hijacked by Somali pirates in December.

During a meeting in Rome, Prime Minister Mario Monti asked his Somali counterpart, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, for help in freeing the Enrico Levoli, which had 18 crew members on board.

The tanker was hijacked on 27 December off the coast of Oman while carrying 15,750 tons of caustic soda from the United Arab Emirates to the Mediterranean Sea.

The same ship was attacked by pirates in 2006.

Ali assured Monti of “his personal engagement in aiding the liberation of the Italian ship and its crew, underscoring his government’s strong commitment to preventing the scourge of piracy”.

Three hijacked Italian vessels were freed by Somali pirates in November and December, two of them reportedly following ransom payments.

The Savina Caylyn, an oil tanker with five Italians and 17 Indians on board, was freed on December 21 after more than 10 months in captivity.

Pirates operating from the Somali coast have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransoms from hijacking ships and currently hold up to 10 ships and 200 hostages.

International navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean owing to the vast distances involved. Even when suspected Somali pirates are captured, Western governments have been reluctant to bring them to trial in their own courts.

More than 1,000 pirates have been imprisoned in the past few years, a few of them tried and jailed in European countries and the United States.

By Fadumo Farah