A South Korean shipping company paid a ransom to Somali pirates to free its 22 sailors, an official said yesterday.
The crew members — eight South Koreans and 14 citizens of Myanmar — were released on Thursday along with their cargo ship Bright Ruby after more than a month of captivity following the hijacking off the coast of Somalia on Sept. 10.
The sailors “were released after the ransom was paid to the Somali pirates,” the official with J&J Trust, which owns the ship, said on condition of anonymity.
He said the ransom was delivered in cash through an agency serving as a middleman. He refused to identify the agency and the amount of ransom.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the payment.
The sailors — who were all safe — were heading toward a Sri Lankan port and planned to return to South Korea and Myanmar, respectively later this month, the ministry and the shipping company said.
The latest incident prompted the South Korean government to consider dispatching naval vessels to waters off Somalia to counter any possible hijackings of South Korean ships.
Meanwhile, India announced it is sending naval warships to the troubled Gulf of Aden on an anti-piracy patrol and the Philippines urged foreign ship owners on Thursday to use only safe routes patrolled by the US.
More than two dozen ships have been seized by pirates this year off the Horn of Africa, including an arms-laden Ukrainian ship for which pirates have demanded a US$8 million ransom.
The hijacking of the Ukrainian freighter carrying a cargo of heavy weapons has heightened concern over the chaos in a key shipping route and prompted NATO to send warships to help US Navy vessels already patrolling the region.
Somalia, which has had no functioning government since 1991, is the world’s top piracy hot spot. It is located along the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and is one of the world’s busiest waterways with some 20,000 ships passing through it each year.
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