Hamburg – The owner of a German ship held by pirates off the coast of Somalia said the crew members were suffering mentally after four months of captivity, in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

“All crew members on board are in physically good shape,” Frank Leonhardt, the owner of the Hansa Stavanger freight ship, told German Bild am Sonntag newspaper. He said their psychological wellbeing was a different matter.

“Of course the mental strain for the sailors and their relatives is considerable,” the ship owner said.

The pirates have reportedly demanded a ransom of 3 million dollars (2.1 million euros) for the ship and crew, Bild reported.

The container ship, owned by Leonhardt & Blumberg shipping company in Hamburg, was seized on April 4 around 400 nautical miles off the Somali coast, between Kenia and the Seychelles.

The captain’s wife and the German union of captains and ship officers have criticised the ship owners’ handling of the situation.

They say the situation is critical on board the ship, where there are water shortages and crew members have fallen ill.

These details are said to have emerged from telephone calls and emails with relatives on board the ship, taking place under the pirates’ supervision.

Five of the captive crew members are German, including two 19-year-old trainees and the captain.(dpa)

Source: TopNews Network

By Sahil Nagpal

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