On Thursday 18th June, the Italian Warship Libeccio assisted the merchant vessel with Italian flag “Roberto Rizzo” that was adrift and was suffering from engines problems 55 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia.
The merchant vessel departed from Greece the last 2nd June and was heading to China. Due to the engine failure, the “Roberto Rizzo” was adrift off the Somali coast and so, vulnerable from a piracy attack. Therefore the merchant vessel asked for military assistance in order to increase her security.
The EU Naval unit Libeccio that was patrolling the Gulf of Aden to ensure the protection to the vulnerable shipping, headed to the area in order to give assistance to the Italian merchant vessel.
The organic Libeccio’s helicopter Augusta-Bell 212 (Call sign thunder 66) took off from the Italian frigate to provide the necessary safety to the vulnerable ship whilst fixing the engines failure.
The Captain of the merchant vessel, Nicolae Anthofie with Romanian nationality, sincerely thanked the EUROMARFOR ITS Libeccio and all her crewmembers for the quick and well done assistance.
ITS Libeccio continues patrolling the Area of Operations, protecting all the World Food Program vessels and vulnerable shipping, deterring any possible piracy act and monitoring all the fishing activity off the coast of Somalia.
