Somali pirates released a German-owned vessel and its crew, including eleven Romanian sailors, on Saturday.
"We have received a 1.8-million-dollar ransom and released the German ship," one of the pirates said from his lair in the town of Eyl on the Somali coast. Local Somali leaders confirmed the information.
A pirate negotiator said a tugboat had brought the ransom to the brigands. Residents said pirates fired wildly into the air to celebrate receipt of the money.
According to Germany’s foreign affairs ministry, the eleven Romanian sailors had been aboard the MV Victoria, an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo vessel that was hijacked by eight pirates in the Gulf of Aden on 5 May while on its way to the port of Jeddah.
Cornel Panchici, the manager of the Constanta-based crewing firm "Kru Maritime" that had contracted the Romanian sailors to work on the ship, said all eleven were safe and sound but declined to provide more information about their release.
Adrian Mihalcioiu, leader of the Free Union of Navigators, had said in early May that the ship with a cargo of 10,000 tons of rice had left India and been heading in a convoy towards Saudi Arabia when it was attacked by pirates.
Mihalcioiu also said eight of the eleven Romanian sailors were from Constanta, the rest from Prahova, Dambovita and Galati counties.
Source: Romanian Times
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