Somali pirates free Korean-owned bulk carrier

Somali pirates have freed a Korean-owned bulk carrier they hijacked three months ago, a regional maritime official said yesterday.

The Panama-flagged, Japanese-operated African Sanderling was seized with its 21 Filipino crew on October 15, all of whom were in good health. It was not clear if any ransom had been paid. "The vessel was released very late on Sunday night, but we just got word of it now," Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme told Reuters.

His organisation has been tracking a sharp rise in piracy off Somalia and in the busy Gulf of Aden. Last year, gunmen from the anarchic Horn of Africa nation hijacked dozens of ships and made tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments.

The attacks have raised insurance costs, prompted some owners to send their ships around South Africa instead of via the Suez Canal and triggered an unprecedented deployment by foreign navies.

On Friday the pirates released a Saudi Arabian supertanker, the Sirius Star, after a €2.3 million ransom was parachuted onto its deck.

The vessel was carrying crude oil worth €75 million.

The gunmen are still holding a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 T-72 tanks, the MV Faina, which was hijacked in September.

The pirates say they hope it will be freed soon and that they had cut their ransom demand to €3.7 million from €15 million.

In a Reuters interview on Saturday, Somalia's interim President Sheikh Aden Madobe said ransom payments only encouraged piracy and that the problem must be tackled on land.

Factbox

Ships held by Somali pirates

Faina: Seized September 24. The ship was carrying 33 T-72 tanks, grenade launchers and ammunition destined for Kenya's Mombasa port. Pirates have demanded €15 million in ransom.

Stolt strength: Seized November 10. The chemical tanker had 23 Filipino crew aboard. It was carrying 23,818 tonnes of oil products.

The karagol: Seized November 12. The Turkish ship with 14 crew was hijacked off Yemen. It was transporting more than 4,000 tonnes of chemicals to Mumbai.

Tianyu 8: Seized November 13/14. The Chinese fishing boat was reported seized off Kenya. The crew included 15 Chinese, one Taiwanese, one Japanese, three Filipinos and four Vietnamese.

Chemstar venus: Seized November 15. The tanker was travelling from Dumai, Indonesia, to Ukraine. It had 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew.

Biscaglia: Seized on November 28. The Biscaglia, a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker, had 30 crew on board: 25 Indians, three Britons and two Bangladeshis.

Names unknown: Seized on December 10. Pirates hijacked two Yemeni fishing vessels with a total of 22 crew in coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden. Five crew reportedly escaped.
Seized on December 16. A yacht with two on board, an Indonesian tugboat used by French oil company Total and a 100-metre cargo ship belonging to an Istanbul-based shipping company were hijacked. Pirates also hijacked the Chinese fishing vessel Zhenhua-4 with 30 Chinese crew aboard but it was freed the next day.

Blue star: Seized on January 1. The Egyptian merchant ship was sailing east with a cargo of 6,000 tonnes of urea, a product used as a fertiliser. It had 28 Egyptian crew aboard. (Reuters)