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Pirates release ship hired by Somali traders
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MOGADISHU — Somali pirates on Wednesday freed a cargo ship carrying goods for Somali traders hours after another gang in the Gulf of Aden seized a German-owned freighter with an 11-member Romanian crew.
The Emirati-owned Al-Meezan was released without a ransom payment five days after it was captured around 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the Somali capital, said Ali Mahmoud Siad, head of a powerful Mogadishu traders group.
“The ship was released without conditions and no ransom was paid,” Siad told AFP. “They agreed to release it when they confirmed it was chartered by Somali traders.”
The Al-Meezan was transporting vehicles and commodities such as sugar and cooking oil for Somali traders and had been sailing from the United Arab Emirates.
To guarantee safe distribution, Somali traders have to come up with huge bonds before relief shipments are sent and such ships if captured are often speedily freed, according to Ecoterra International, an environmentalist NGO monitoring piracy and other illegal marine activities in the region.
Eight pirates captured a German-owned freighter earlier in the Gulf of Aden despite the presence of foreign naval patrols.
The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV Victoria was seized while on its way to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, the Caribbean state said.
Its 11 Romanian crew, aged between 22 and 64 was safe, the company that recruited them said. The ship was being taken towards the port of Eyl, a pirate base in the northern Somali breakaway region of Puntland.
“The pirates allowed the ship’s commander to contact the German owner and he told him they were all well,” Cornel Panchici, manager of the Romanian recruiting company Kru Maritime, told AFP.
Romania’s foreign ministry meanwhile said it was “in contact with the ship’s owner and the authorities in the region.”
The latest incident brings to at least 19 the number of ships currently being held by Somali pirates, along with at least 300 crew.
In the first quarter of 2009, 102 piracy incidents were reported to the International Maritime Bureau, nearly double the number during the same period in 2008.
However, foreign naval ships, including from NATO and the European Union, have thwarted several hijacking attempts and made dozens of arrests.
The French frigate Nivose captured 11 Somali suspects last weekend and handed them over to Kenya where they have been charged with piracy.
Nairobi and the EU have signed an agreement allowing the transfer of pirates captured off the Somali coast.
Another 19 were captured over the weekend by a Portuguese frigate after it foiled an attack on an oil tanker. However, the men were later released.
In the single largest capture last month, a Russian naval destroyer seized 29 suspected pirates with an assortment of weapons and equipment including satellite navigation devices.
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