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Tanzanian freed by Somali pirates
2005-10-03 07:25:40
By Guardian Reporter
A Tanzanian engineer kidnapped by Somali pirates over three months ago has been released with nine fellow crewmembers of a ship carrying UN food aid, the vessel’s owner said yesterday.
The ship was bound for a safe port under friendly guard, said Inayet Kudrati, director of the Motaku Shipping Agency which owns the vessel and leased it to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).
The crew of the Tanzanian engineer, eight Kenyans and a Sri Lankan captain were all safe and well, Kudrati said by telephone from the agency’s headquarters in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
’The hijackers have disembarked from the ship, and security people from El Maan port have embarked and are now on board,’ Kudrati said.
The pirates left the ship yesterday afternoon, 98 days after they first seized it at gunpoint in Indian Ocean waters off Somalia that are among the world’s most dangerous in terms of piracy.
Kenya’s Ambassador to Somalia, Mohamed Affey, said the crew had told him they had been freed when he spoke to them by satellite phone on Sunday.
’They are very excited and very happy it’s over,’ Affey said.
The WFP could not immediately confirm the release, but said that the ship was bound for El Maan after weighing anchor on Friday off the coast of the pirate’s central Somalia base, Harardheere.
The pirates could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kudrati said the ship was due to arrive in El Maan, north of Mogadishu, today or tomorrow morning at the latest.
The ship had been taken to El Maan last month with plans for it to be released, but the pirates dashed those hopes by taking out to sea again on September 22.
The pirates on June 27 commandeered the MV Semlow and its cargo of 850 tonnes of rice, destined for victims of the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that struck northern Somalia.
In the intervening months, numerous efforts to free the boat, its crew and cargo fell through as the hijackers changed their demands, which had included ransom of $500,000 and the forfeiting of the cargo in exchange for the boat and its crew.
But the latest deal, which sources close to the talks said was negotiated with the assistance of Somali businessmen, appeared to be holding.
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