CAIRO (AFP) — Somali pirates who seized an Egyptian ship with 25 crew on board off Somalia's Puntland region want a ransom to be paid before freeing them, an Egyptian official said on Monday.
The pirates "want a sum of money to free the boat and the sailors," junior foreign affairs minister Ahmed Rizk told journalists, declining to specify the amount.
Rizk said last week that an Egyptian "boat has been hijacked near Eyl in the Puntland region known for its instability and the scene of many incidents of piracy."
The ministry "has information which allows for optimism about the end of the crisis," Rizk said, while the boat's owner is in constant contact with the crew who are in "a reassuring state."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit has asked the Somali ambassador in Cairo to end his holidays and help end the crisis, Rizk said.
Pirates who seized a yacht with two French nationals on board in the same area said last week they wanted a "ransom" of more than one million dollars, a maritime official said.
Hijackers captured the French sailing boat Carre d'as in the Gulf of Aden on September 2 and were taking it to Eyl village, a pirate den in Somalia's semi-autonomous northern Puntland region.
French commandos carried out an operation in April and captured six pirates after Somali pirates seized a French luxury sailing ship, Le Ponant, with its 30 crew, including 22 French nationals, and held them for a week.
The waters off Somalia are the most dangerous in the world for piracy, with the International Maritime Bureau reporting 24 attacks in the area between April and June this year
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