[2] The pirates had attempted to extract a ransom by holding the yacht's occupants hostage, but were ultimately defeated when the French Navy assaulted them.

Tanit, a privately owned French yacht named after the Phoenician lunar goddess, with its five crew and passengers was sailing to Zanzibar when it was boarded by pirates on 4 April.

Even after meeting with a couple whose yacht, Carré d'As IV, had been captured by pirates, and later rescued by French commandos,[3] they continued on their journey.

Joined locally by 20 more commandos, they parachuted from a C-130 Hercules plane into the sea, to be picked up by three French warships that had been tracking the pirates, together with a German frigate equipped with hospital facilities.

Seeing the pirates were uncooperative a sniper on-board one of the vessels managed to shoot down the sails and to damage the mast and the yacht.