VILLE DE QUÉBEC completes first escort mission off Somalia
Further to this post, the frigate is now at work:
While posted in an area known for pirates, civil war and terrorism, crew members aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec got to spread a little good last weekend.
The Halifax-based frigate completed its first escort mission Sunday morning, helping to deliver 5,000 tonnes of food to starving Somalis in Mogadishu.
"Food was going to leave that ship and go feed someone, and that’s something navies don’t often get to see — a result," Cmdr. Chris Dickinson said in a phone interview off the coast of Somalia Monday.
"I’ve been off Yugoslavia, working there in a submarine; I’ve been involved in the war on terrorism. This was a totally different feeling.
"It was good, I’ll tell ya, it was good."
The Ville de Quebec accompanied the vessel Abdul Rahman to a spot about two kilometres from the shore of war-torn Mogadishu. There the ship was met by African Union soldiers, who are working on land with the United Nations forces.
The Canadian frigate is scheduled to do another escort into Mogadishu this morning with a North Korean ship called the Zang Za San Chong Nyon Ho.
"The ship’s company is totally hyped about it because it is something that is so totally different than anything we’ve done before," Cmdr. Dickinson said of the six-week deployment protecting United Nations World Food Programme shipments from pirates.
He said already this year, 24 vessels have been attacked and seven were taken over and still being held by the rogue seamen...
A boarding party returns to HMCS Ville de Quebec after escorting 5,000 tonnes of food aboard the Abdul Rahman to Mogadishu, Somalia. (Cpl Dany Veillette / Marlant HQ)
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posted by Mark, Ottawa at 8:49 a.m.
3 Comments:
"The Canadian frigate is scheduled to do another escort into Mogadishu this morning with a North Korean ship called the Zang Za San Chong Nyon Ho."
Interesting. North Korea is yet again in the midst of a (self-inflicted) famine and it's only known exports are arms, narcotics and counterfeit hard currency. It's hard to believe they'd be exporting shiploads of food.
Does anyone know what the cargo of this North Korean ship is?
Dave in Pa: It's almost certainly a ship chartered (cheap!) by the World Food Program to deliver supplies the WFP has bought.
Mark
Ottawa
Mark, I'm glad to read a benign explanation for that N. Korean ship. I was suspecting a covert arms delivery or actually selling the food aid sent to N. Korea, to get hard currency, which has supposedly happened before.
(BTW, I'm Dave. I changed my nom de plume to Dave in Pa (Pennsylvania) as there's a number of Daves commenting at several other blog sites which I visit and occasionally comment at. Don't want any confusion.)
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