Somali pirates release oil ship without getting ransom

By Mohammed Dhaysane

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Somali pirates released an oil tanker and its crew Thursday night without receiving any ransom, officials said early Friday.

“After a days-long siege by Puntland maritime forces, the Somali pirates released the oil tanker along with eight Sri Lankan crew members, and they are safe,” Abdirahman Haji, the head of maritime forces for Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, told Anadolu Agency in a telephone interview.

The pirates had hijacked the Aris 13 Monday in the Indian Ocean as it was taking oil from the small port country of Djibouti to the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Thursday’s release followed 20 minutes of gunfire between maritime forces and pirate gunmen along the Alula coast in the Barri region, where the pirates had kept the vessel.

Aadan Ahmed, one of the pirates, told Anadolu Agency why they set the ship free.

“We released the ship without any condition or ransom after we learned that Somali businessmen had hired the ship. But we need the Somali government and federal states to stop granting permits to foreign ships,” he said.

Local clan elders in Alula had negotiated with Somali pirates for three days to release the United Arab Emirates-flagged oil tanker.

This week’s incident was the first time Somali pirates have hijacked a commercial ship since 2012.