MV Abdullah released after $5m ransom was paid, Somali pirates claim
International Desk
Somali pirates claimed that they released the hijacked ship MV Abdullah and its 23 sailors on Sunday after they were paid a $5 million ransom.
"The money was brought to us two nights ago as usual. We checked whether the money was fake or not. Then we divided the money into groups and left, avoiding the government forces," Abdirashiid Yusuf, one of the pirates, told Reuters.
However, the Somalia government officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The MV Abdullah was hijacked in March as it was going to the United Arab Emirates from Mozambique.
The hijacking incident occurred about 600 nautical miles east of Somalia's capital Mogadishu.
The pirates from Somali caused chaos in the waters off the country's long coastline from about 2008 to 2018. They had been dormant until late last year when pirate activity started to pick up again.
According to maritime sources, pirates may be encouraged by a relaxation of security or maybe taking advantage of the chaos caused by attacks on shipping by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group. At the same time, war rages in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
