The Faina was headed for Mombasa after setting off from Ukraine. On the way, pirates hijacked the vessel using speedboats. This has become an ordinary thing, another 30 ships being hijacked off the coast of Somalia, including oil tankers. The pirates demand $20 million in exchange for the ship’s crew and cargo. At the moment, the U.S. navy has the hijacked ship surrounded and negotiations have been put in motion. But the truly extraordinary part of the story lies in what the Faina was carrying and, even more, where the cargo was destined to arrive.

The Ukrainian ship was carrying 33 T-72 tanks, rocket launchers and ammunition which, U.S officials think, were headed for South Sudan via Kenya. The arrival of the U.S. Navy at the scene caused even more tension which led to a shootout, three of the hijackers being killed. It is also believed that one member of the kidnapped crew suffering from high blood pressure died. This unexpected turn of events can cause negotiations to slow down and become increasingly more difficult.

On the other hand, the cargo raises some disturbing issues: if the weapons were indeed headed for South Sudan this violates the North-South peace pact, unless both sides are aware of the exchange. In these conditions, the Southern Sudan government denies ever purchasing the weapons. If proved otherwise the western nations’ governments that are spending huge amounts of money on the development of this state would be furious. The situation on the coast of Somalia is intense and it has the potential of detonating an international crisis.  Kenya is stating that the weapons aboard the Faina were purchased by their military, but arms experts say that it makes no sense for Kenya to buy Russian weapons as long as they’ve been purchasing military equipment from the U.S., Great Britain and China. Coincidently or not, southern Sudan has a history of using Russian tanks and other Russian block weapons.

Southern Sudanese officials couldn’t be reached to comment on the current situation. And so pirates managed to steal the treasure and cause some mayhem as well.