Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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NAIROBI, May 29 (Reuters) - Somali pirates have released a St Kitts-flagged ship and its 16 crew after receiving a $100,000 ransom, a Kenyan maritime official said on Tuesday.
Another four ships were still held off Somalia's coast where pirates frequently hijack vessels and sometimes claim to be coastguards protecting their waters against illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste, the official said.
"The Mariam Queen has been released and is headed towards Mogadishu. We hear the owners paid $100,000," Andrew Mwangura, director of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, told Reuters by telephone.
"The pirates had demanded $150,000 dollars but it fell to $100,000 after negotiations," he said.
The ship would unload its cargo in Mogadishu, he added, but gave no other details.
Another vessel attacked by pirates earlier this month -- the MV Victoria -- was expected to dock in Mombasa on Tuesday, Mwangura said. The World Food Programme had contracted that vessel to deliver aid supplies to Somalia.
Four other ships -- an Indian dhow and three fishing vessels from Taiwan and Tanzania -- were still being held, he said.
Source: Reuters, May 29, 2007