Somali pirates seize German vessel, free Greek ship

Saturday, April 25, 2009 NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates seized a 31,000-tonne German grain carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a Kenyan maritime official said. Pirates also released the Greek vessel, MV Saldanha, after they were paid $1.9 million (1.3 million pounds) in ransom, a pirate source said. The Malta-flagged, German-owned MV Patriot belongs to Patriot Schiffahrts and is managed by Blumenthal JMK of Hamburg, Germany, said Andrew Mwangura, director of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program. "I hear it was taken early this morning," he told Reuters. "It was hijacked in the eastern end of the Gulf of Aden." The ship's 17 crew members are unhurt, Mwangura said. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin could not confirm the German vessel had been seized but said it was investigating. A pirate told Reuters his comrades had also released a Greek ship but he could not give its name. "My friends have released the Greek ship after $1.9 million ransom was paid," said the pirate, identified only as Hussein Mwangura named the ship as the Saldanha, captured on February 22, and said it was now on the way to safer waters. Two other Greek ships are still in pirate hands -- the MV Irene E.M., with 22 Filipino crew members, and the Nipayiya. Pirate attacks off the eastern African coast have escalated in the past few weeks despite the presence of a flotilla of foreign navy warships in the region. Sea gangs are holding more than 250 hostages and have made millions of dollars through ransoms, driving up insurance costs. Some shipping lines now opt to use a longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid capture. Hijackings rose nearly 200 percent to 111 in 2008. So far this year, there have been about 40 incidents. In the latest high-profile hijacking, pirates attacked a U.S. ship, the Maersk Alabama, earlier in April. Its crew of 20 fought back and the pirates were forced to flee with the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, in a lifeboat. After a standoff with the U.S. Navy, Phillips was rescued and three pirates were shot dead by snipers. The U.S. action could force the gangs to take more drastic action, including executing some of their hostages, some analysts say. The pirates have so far avoided deliberately harming captured crew members and in 2008 secured some $100 million in ransom payments for crews and vessels. The pirates have reinvested some of their takings in bigger weaponry and widened their reach to 500 miles from the Somali coast. Source: Reuters, April 25, 2009