Pirates free box ship, tug crews after US$2.7 million paid

SOMALI pirates have released 35 seamen held hostage for months after ransoms were paid to the hijackers in exchange for releasing a German containership and a Malaysian tug and their crews which had been seized in separate attacks.

The German-owned 1,550-TEU Hansa Stavanger and its 24-man crew were released after the pirates were paid US$2.7 million. The ship was later escorted from Somali waters by a European Union naval force, and was said to be heading "up north" to an unidentified destination, reports AFP.

It said the ship had been seized in April 400 nautical miles off Somalia between Kenya and the Seychelles.

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed the release of the Liberian flagged 20,000-ton Hansa Stavanger and said the crew members were well.

In an earlier development, pirates also freed a Malaysian tug with 11 sailors, which had been seized eight months ago in December last year, after a ransom was paid. The size of the ransom was not disclosed.

According to Kenya-based Ecoterra International, the TB Masindra 7 and its attached Indonesian barge ADM1 had been operating under a contract from French oil giant Total when it was taken by pirates on it return to Malaysia from Mukallah in Yemen.

The crew were reported to be "safe and sound" and their ship was "now steaming out to safe waters."

Ecoterra was cited as saying in the report that the lack of cooperation between the Malaysian and Indonesian shipowners meant the case dragged on for months.

The report added that around 200 sailors and at least 11 ships are still being held in the region. According to the International Maritime Bureau, Somali pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships last year, an increase of more than 200 per cent over 2007.

(Source: www.schednet.com)