26 Asian Sailors Released After Ransom, Somali Pirate Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/world/africa/somalia-pirates-captives.html

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MOGADISHU, Somalia — A Somali pirate said Saturday that 26 Asian sailors held hostage for more than four years had been freed after a ransom was paid, and international mediators said the release “represents the end of captivity for the last remaining seafarers taken hostage during the height of Somali piracy.”

The sailors, from Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Indonesia, China and the Philippines, had been among the few hostages still in the hands of Somali pirates.

The pirate, Bile Hussein, said the sailors were the crew of the FV Naham 3, a Taiwanese-owned fishing vessel seized in March 2012. The ship later sank.

Mr. Hussein said $1.5 million in ransom had been paid for the sailors’ release. That claim could not be verified.

The 26 sailors were in the hands of officials in Somalia “and will be repatriated using a U.N. humanitarian flight shortly and then on to their home countries,” said John Steed, the coordinator of the Hostage Support Partners program for the organization Oceans Beyond Piracy, in a statement.

The statement included a photo, stamped Aug. 14, showing the thin, grim crewmen standing or squatting together as proof that they were alive.

Mr. Steed said only one other group of hostages had been held longer than this one, which spent 1,672 days in captivity.

“They are reported to be in reasonable condition, considering their ordeal,” Mr. Steed said. “They are all malnourished. Four are currently receiving medical treatment by a doctor in Galkayo. They have spent over four and a half years in deplorable conditions away from their families.”

He said that another member of the crew had died in the hijacking and that two had died of illnesses in captivity.

Piracy off Somalia’s coast was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry, but attacks have dropped sharply in recent years since ships began carrying armed guards and European Union naval forces increased patrols.

No commercial vessel has been successfully attacked since 2012, but the threat of piracy remains, Mr. Steed said.

Most of the hostages held by Somali pirates have been sailors on merchant ships, though European families have also been kidnapped from their yachts while traveling in the dangerous Indian Ocean coastal waters.