Two pirates told Reuters news agency that Somali pirates released the hijacked ship “Abdullah” and its 23-member crew early today (Sunday) after paying a ransom of $5 million.
One of them, Abdul Rashid Youssef, said: “The money was brought to us two nights ago as usual… We checked whether the money was fake or not. “Then we divided the money into groups and left, avoiding government forces.”
He added that the ship and its entire crew had been released.
Somali government officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The Bangladesh-flagged bulk ship was hijacked in March while on its way from Mozambique to the UAE, about 600 nautical miles east of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Somali pirates caused chaos in the waters off the country’s long coast, from approximately 2008 to 2018. They remained dormant until late last year, when hacker activity began to pick up again.
Maritime sources say that easing security measures may encourage pirates, or they may take advantage of the chaos resulting from attacks launched by the Yemeni Houthi group allied with Iran on ships, while the war rages in the Palestinian Gaza Strip between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
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