Hostages freed after five years
End to drama for 26 crew members kidnapped by Somali pirates
nairObi: Somali pirates have freed 26 Asian hostages held for nearly five years after the hijacking of their fishing vessel, the last commercial ship seized at the height of the country’s piracy scourge, negotiators said.
The crew of the Naham 3, the second longest held hostage by Somali pirates, were taken captive when their Omani-flagged vessel was seized south of the Seychelles in March 2012.
“We are very pleased to announce the release of the Naham 3 crew early this morning,” said John Steed, coordinator of the Hostage Support Partners (HSP) who helped negotiate their release.
Steed, a retired British army colonel who has made it his mission to save “forgotten hostages”, said the mission to return the crew to their families still held one obstacle: extracting them from Galkayo city, where fighting was raging between forces from the rival regional states of Puntland and Galmudug.
Clashes in Galkayo have left at least 11 dead and over 50,000 displaced this month, the United Nations humanitarian agency said.
Once extracted, the crew, who hail from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, will be returned to their home countries and families.
“They have spent over four and a half years in deplorable conditions,” said Steed, adding that they were malnourished and one of them had a bullet wound in his foot, another had had a stroke and another was suffering from diabetes.
Pirates initially took 29 crew hostage, but one person died during the hijacking and two more “succumbed to illness” during their captivity, said a statement from Oceans Beyond Piracy.
Steed said negotiations – which took 18 months – involved mediation with community, tribal and religious leaders.
He declined to comment on the exact details but said the road to the hostages being freed was filled with peril and “heroism”.
The Naham 3 was originally tethered to another hijacked vessel, the MV Albedo, which was seized in November 2010 and released by HSP in 2014.
When the MV Albedo began to sink, “these guys jumped into the waters and rescued the drowning crew,” Steed said.
When the Naham 3 sank a year after its capture, “these guys were then taken ashore where they have been ever since, with pirates making increasingly irrational demands”.
“The release of the Naham 3 crew represents the end of captivity for the last remaining seafarers taken hostage during the height of Somali piracy,” he said.
Only a crew of Thai fishermen, released in February last year after nearly five years in captivity, were held longer by Somali pirates.
Many of the hostages left languishing in the hands of pirates are poor fishermen.
“If you don’t have insurance or you are a poor little ship, no one is going to help get you out,” said Steed. — AFP