By editor in-chief

MOGADISHU (Sunatimes)--The death sentence of six Somali pirates by a Yemeni court over hijacking oil tanker has unleashed threats of revenge from pirates against Yemeni citizens and raised concerns about escalating violence in the region.

A COURT in Yemen sentenced six Somali pirates to death for hijacking a Yemeni oil tanker in April 2009, killing one Yemeni crew member and leaving another missing, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

“The punishments of any Yemeni citizens we captured are beheadings and their ships to sink” Abdirahman Nur, a Somali pirates told Sunatimes.

“They will execute our friends and we shall revenge” he added by telephone from Hobyo pirate hotbed town.

Another pirate called Yemen "our No. 1 enemy."

The long range Somali pirates have made millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the strategic Gulf of Aden, through which an estimated 7 per cent of world oil consumption passes.

The horn of Africa nation has been without central governmentsince1991 after clan militias and warlords overthrown the dictator regime of Siad Barre that lastly leashed out to constant violence for more than 20 years.

SOURCE: SUNATIMES, SOURCES OF SOMALIA NEWS

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