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Somali pirates have released a Singapore-flagged chemical tanker with 17 Indonesian crew members held hostage after ransom was paid, according to media reports.

EU Naval Force spokesman Commander John Harbour was quoted as saying on Saturday that the MV Pramoni and its 24-member crew had been released by the pirates and that the vessel had set a course away from the coast.

An EU warship was monitoring the situation and all the crew were safe, he said.

Xinhua news agency also quoted Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Program in East Africa, as saying the pirates freed the MV Pramoni last week and that vessel was sailing away from the Somali coast.

“The vessel, which was seized on Jan. 1 with 24 crew members … was released early today after its owners paid ransom,” Mwangura was quoted as saying on Friday.

The owners of the ship reportedly dropped off an undisclosed ransom for the release of the vessel on Thursday. The cash was bundled in a waterproof container, attached to a parachute and pushed out the back of a small plane. It is a common way of delivering the multimillion-dollar ransoms demanded by the pirates.

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah on Sunday told the Jakarta Globe that he had heard the ship had been released but said the government had not received official confirmation.

“This is a negotiation between the company and the pirates,” he said.

The ship was a Norwegian chemical tanker leased by an Indonesian company.

It was seized in the Gulf of Aden while en route to India, marking the first attack by Somali pirates this year.

Also among the 20,000 deadweight-ton vessel’s 24-man crew are five Chinese nationals, a Nigerian and a Vietnamese.

Meanwhile, Graeme Gibbon Brooks, the managing director of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service, said it was likely that pirate attacks would sharply increase in March, April and May as calmer weather was expected to make it easier to launch attacks.



JG, AP, AFP