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Pirates free Greek vessel, ransom paid for hostages  |
Agencies/Mogadishu
Somali pirates said yesterday they had released a Greek cargo vessel and its Ukrainian crew after a payment of $3.7mn more than six months after it was captured.
A Canadian journalist and Australian photographer freed after 15 months of captivity in Somalia arrived yesterday in Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya.
“After serious negotiations over the past four days, the Ariana is free after the payment of 3.7mn dollars,” said pirate Ahmed Abdullahi Mohamoud.
“The owners of the ship were joking for a while without understanding the seriousness of the situation,” he said by phone from Harardhere, a pirate den in northern Somalia.
Another pirate, Abdi Mohamoud, said the captors had demanded $5mn to release the cargo vessel “but they settled for this amount.”
He added that nobody on board the ship had been harmed.
The Maltese-flagged MV Ariana was seized north of Madagascar on May 2 while on its way to the Middle East from Brazil. It was carrying 10,000 tonnes of soya beans.
The ship is owned by the Athens-based All Ocean Shipping company, which is in turn owned by a British conglomerate.
Last month, the families of the 24-strong Ukrainian crew pleaded for their release, calling on the ship owners and the pirates to speed up negotiations.
One of the two female crew members was reported to be serously ill and risked death without proper medical treatment, a Ukrainian doctor said during a phone interview with the crew in August.
The tearful young woman pleaded for help in the phone call, said the doctor, who added that she ran the risk of generalised infection due to a gynaecological condition.
Her conditions was not immediately known yesterday.
Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were set free on Wednesday night and stayed overnight in a Mogadishu hotel.
“They were released last night,” said Dahir Mohamoud Gelle, Somalia’s information minister.
They are in good condition right now, but imagine how someone who has been in prison for over a year can feel ... they are very tired.”
The pair was whisked out of Mogadishu yesterday on a charter flight, with African Union peacekeepers and government troops keeping journalists at bay.
Lindhout and Brennan were also shielded from the media when they arrived at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport
Unconfirmed reports suggested a figure of around $1mn was handed over to armed militia.
Lindhout said that she and Brennan were moved from house to house and kept apart during their captivity.
“I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day,” she said.
Lindhout and Brennan were taken just outside Mogadishu in August 2008 as they researched a story on internally displaced persons. Another journalist and their driver - both Somali - were seized at the same time, but released in January.
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