Somali pirates: Ransom is ours
Source: Agencies |
December 28, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A HELICOPTER dropped a US$4 million ransom payment yesterday onto the deck of a Chinese coal ship hijacked by Somali pirates in mid-October, a pirate source on board the vessel said.
The De Xin Hai and its 25 crew were carrying about 76,000 tons of coal from South Africa to Mundra in India when it was seized in an audacious attack by the gunmen some 1,120 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa.
Heavily armed sea gangs from Somalia have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking vessels in the Indian Ocean and the strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.
Patrols in the area by warships from several nations only appear to have forced the pirates to hunt further from shore.
"A helicopter dropped the ransom money onto the ship. We have received US$4 million," Hassan, one of the pirates on the De Xin Hai, told Reuters by telephone to cheers in the background.
"We hope to disembark in a few hours," he added.
"The crew is safe and, although they will not have their freedom for a few more days, they are all happy now."
The chaos in the waters off Somalia is a reflection of a civil war on land that has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven 1.5 million from their homes.
The October 19 hijacking of the De Xin Hai was the first known seizure of a coal ship by Somali pirates.
The ship is owned by Qingdao Ocean Shipping, a unit of China Ocean Shipping or COSCO.
The De Xin Hai and its 25 crew were carrying about 76,000 tons of coal from South Africa to Mundra in India when it was seized in an audacious attack by the gunmen some 1,120 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa.
Heavily armed sea gangs from Somalia have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking vessels in the Indian Ocean and the strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.
Patrols in the area by warships from several nations only appear to have forced the pirates to hunt further from shore.
"A helicopter dropped the ransom money onto the ship. We have received US$4 million," Hassan, one of the pirates on the De Xin Hai, told Reuters by telephone to cheers in the background.
"We hope to disembark in a few hours," he added.
"The crew is safe and, although they will not have their freedom for a few more days, they are all happy now."
The chaos in the waters off Somalia is a reflection of a civil war on land that has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven 1.5 million from their homes.
The October 19 hijacking of the De Xin Hai was the first known seizure of a coal ship by Somali pirates.
The ship is owned by Qingdao Ocean Shipping, a unit of China Ocean Shipping or COSCO.
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