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16-04-2024
MOGADISHU/ DUBAI: Somali pirates have released a Bangladesh-flagged vessel and its 23-member crew after a ransom was reportedly paid.
The MV Abdullah was carrying coal from Mozambique to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when it was hijacked off Somalia’s coast about a month ago.
The pirates alleged that they received $5m (£4m), but there is no independent confirmation of the claim.
A spike in hijackings has been reported off Somalia’s coast in recent months.
More than a dozen vessels have been targeted since late November.
Security experts said a security vacuum had developed off Somalia’s coast after foreign navies patrolling its waters turned their attention to the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi rebel group have been attacking ships.
Between 2005 and 2012, pirates off the Horn of Africa raked in between $339m and $413m by holding crew members hostage and demanding ransom payments, the World Bank has estimated.
Media reported that it was told by two pirates that a $5m ransom was paid for the release of MV Abdullah and its crew.
“We checked whether the money was fake or not. Then we divided the money into groups and left, avoiding the government forces,” Reuters quoted one of the pirates, Abdirashiid Yusuf, as saying.
The vessel’s owner, the KSRM Group, said the vessel and its crew were freed following negotiations.
“We struck a deal with the pirates,” Mizanul Islam of SR Shipping, the group’s maritime arm, told media.
“We cannot say more about the money,” he said, adding: “All the crew are safe and secure.”
The ship has since sailed to UAE, escorted by two warships.
Experts fear the volatile security situation in the Red Sea due to attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels on commercial shipping may tie up international forces and provide a window for Somali pirates in the nearby Horn of Africa presenting a multi-billion-dollar threat to the global economy.
Yemen and Somalia are among the region’s poorest nations, both ravaged by years of civil war.
Somali pirates’ capture of the MV Ruen in December last year marked the first successful hijacking of a vessel off the country’s coast since 2017.
Spanish, Japanese and Indian warships tracked the Malta-flagged, Bulgarian-managed bulk carrier as it was taken into Somali territorial waters, according to a December report from the European Union Naval Force but when the Ruen, now operated by a pirate crew, last week left Somali waters with the intent of committing acts of piracy on the high seas, the Indian Navy made moves to intercept it, according to a navy statement posted on social platform X.
The destroyer INS Kolkata, operating in the area to help ensure international maritime security, used a ship-launched drone to confirm the Ruen was being operated by armed pirates, the Indian statement said.
After the pirates fired on the drone, destroying it, and then on the Indian warship itself, the Kolkata responded by firing on the Ruen, disabling its steering and navigation, the statement said.
As the Kolkata sought the surrender of the pirates, the commandos parachuted in after a 10-hour flight from India, the air force said on X. Rafts were also dropped into the ocean from the large transport for marines to reach the Ruen. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
