SOMALIA:Pirates holding about a dozen boats off Somalia have freed a German-owned cargo ship and a Japanese-operated chemical tanker after ransom payments, a maritime group and sources on the ground said yesterday.
Pirates have this year been running amok in the Gulf of Aden, a major sea artery used by some 20,000 vessels a year heading to and from the Suez Canal.
Shipping sources confirmed the release of the German-owned boat, named as the BBC Trinidad, and its 13-member crew. The vessel had been seized on August 21st.
Sources close to the pirate gangs based in the northern Somali region of Puntland also confirmed that the Irene, registered in Panama but managed from Japan, was going free. The Ireneis thought to have a crew of 15 Filipinos and three Croatians.
"We understand the gang were demanding about $2.47 million (€1.7 million) ransom (for Irene). Maybe they got less, I don't know. They are certainly making a lot of money," said Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Association.
Heavily armed Somali pirates, usually using speedboats and now also boasting a French yacht they have captured, have seized more than 30 vessels so far this year.
The violence at sea has fed off chaos onshore.
Islamist insurgents are battling Somalias interim government in Mogadishu and their Ethiopian military backers in the latest round of Somalias 17-year-old civil conflict.
Mr Mwangura's group says it has been telling shipping companies for years not to pay ransoms to Somali gangs, but many were doing so, fuelling a now lucrative and spiralling trade.
In Puntland, a local official blamed the international community for failing to act against the pirates, despite the presence of French and American military bases in the region.
"We are condemning countries like the US and France who are mandated to protect Somali waters from pirates' actions," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, fisheries minister for the semi-autonomous region, said. - (Reuters)