Somali pirates said on Wednesday they had freed a UAE-owned cargo ship captured at the weekend en route to Mogadishu with goods for local businessmen.
"We released the ship before dawn today after we identified that it was chartered for Somali traders," a pirate, who identified himself as Hussein, told Reuters by telephone from Haradheere.
Local traders confirmed the release of the Al Meezan, which was carrying flour, used cars, sugar and other items, according to pirate sources.
No ransom was believed to have been paid.
"The traders who owned the goods on the ship and the pirates identified each other, and so they agreed to release it," Ali Mohamed Siad, chairman of a local Somali traders' organization, told Reuters by telephone in Mogadishu.
Despite an unprecedented international naval deployment to deter them, Somali pirates continue marauding in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden waters off their coast.
In the latest seizure, an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the government of the Caribbean state said on Tuesday.
Pirates are holding about 17 ships with around 250 hostages.
(Reporting by Abdi Guled; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Wangui Kanina).
Source: Reuters
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