Seoul confirmed yesterday that a South Korean supertanker and 24 crew hijacked by Somali pirates in April have been released.
The 300,000 tonne ship, the Samho Dream, and the crew — five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos — were released near Hobyo, a Somali pirate base, on Saturday and were being escorted to another country, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
“The ship is being escorted by a South Korean navy ship ... the crewmen will return home after health check-up in the safe area,” it said.
The ministry did not say how much ransom was paid for the release, but Somali pirates said on Saturday they had received a record US$9 million ransom in a helicopter air drop for the release of the ship.
The Samho Dream was seized in the Indian Ocean in April as it was heading fully laden from Iraq to the US state of Louisiana.
Piracy has surged off Somalia, a lawless, war-torn country that sits astride one of the world’s most important shipping routes, leading to the Suez Canal.
Dozens of ships have been hijacked and held for ransom, notably the Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker.
Between US$3 million and US$8 million were paid to free the Sirius Star in January last year, and between US$5.5 million and US$9 million for the Maran Centaurus this year, sources said.
The pirates are estimated to have made US$60 million in ransom last year.
Foreign naval powers, including a joint EU force and the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, have mounted patrols off the Horn of Africa in a multinational effort to try to secure the area, with some success.
South Korea is one of the countries involved in the effort.
However, the pirates, often operating in small, fast boats from a larger “mother ship,” have been able to seize boats hundreds of kilometers offshore, as far east as the Maldives and as far south as Mozambique.
Another South Korean fishing boat with 43 people on board was seized by Somali pirates off the Kenyan coast last month and has been held since. The crab fishing vessel, Keummi 305, carrying two South Koreans, two Chinese and 39 Kenyans, was hijacked on Oct. 9 in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan island of Lamu.
A UN report published on Tuesday reported 37 successful ship hijackings in the first 10 months this year.
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