Respected German cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd, is planning to disembark its passengers currently sailing a world cruise on its MS Columbus cruise ship and put them all on a charter flight from a port stop in Yemen (Hodeidah) to Dubai.

The ship will then sail - without passengers - through the “danger zone” where several pirate attacks have already taken place. The company reports that it the German government denied the company’s request for a security escort through the zone. This is despite the fact the same government’s German Foreign Ministry has issued a travel warning to all shipping companies not to travel through the area.

The passengers will take a charter flight to Dubai and spend three days at a five-star hotel waiting to rejoin the 150-meter (490-foot) vessel in the southern Oman port of Salalah for the remainder of a round-the-world tour that began in Italy.

The Gulf of Aden is an extremely strategic zone for shipping due to its proximity to the Suez Canal, the main canal connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea for access to the East Coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean. Without sailing through the canal a ship must sail around the continent of Africa to get to the same destinations.

While the German Foreign Ministry issued the travel warning and other nations agree the danger is significant, The U.S. Navy has not fully advised ships to completely avoid the area. They are advising them to stay within the “international traffic corridor” along the Gulf of Aden which is being supervised and protected by an international coalition of armed ships.

The coalition consists of the “Nato Anti-piracy mission” which mostly helps world food aid vessels and about a dozen ships from the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet based in India. Russia and Malaysia are already patrolling the area and Russia is planning to replace its current ship with a bigger one from a different fleet. Britain, France, Greece, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands will contribute at least 10 warships and three aircraft, with contingents rotated every three months.

Still, with some 50 ships transiting the area per day, it is impossible to protect each and every one of them. The pirates tend to hit quickly, darting in from their own waters and then dashing out once they are thwarted or accomplish their mission. Pirates have attacked 32 vessels and hijacked 12 of them since NATO deployed a four-vessel flotilla on Oct. 24 to escort cargo ships and conduct anti-piracy patrols.

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