Pirates Free MV Hansa Stavanger Along With Crew

The box-ship with around 1,070 containers was sea-jacked by Somali sea-shifta on 3rd April 2009 400 km off the southern Somali port of Kismaayu.

MV Hansa Stavanger Courtesy: 5fff.tripod.com

(NAIROBI, Kenya) - "The nightmare of being held hostage in Somalia is over for five Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians, two Filipinos, 11 Tuvaluans and one sailor from Fiji," according to Ecoterra International, a group in Africa that monitors the pirate situation off Somalia around the clock since 1986.

They say pirates freed the German owned, German-flagged MV Hansa Stavanger and the vessel is sailing - Ecoterra's sources confirmed.

The vessel, which was destined for Mombasa / Kenya, however, is accordings to navy reports apparently sailing north to Jabel Ali / Dubai from the central Somalia coast, where it had been held near Harardheere for exactly four month.

Ecoterra speculates that the reason could be that the cargo-owners will be the new hostages in this case until they pay up a 25% share of the value for a general average damage contribution demanded by the ship-owner - Leonhardt & Blumberg of Hamburg - but none of the cargo owners had followed that request.

The ships insurer, Assuranceforeningen Gard - Norway, and as well as two attempts to show naval might, appear to have made the negotiations difficult, while the captors and appointed negotiators played their games.

The box-ship with around 1,070 containers was sea-jacked by Somali sea-shifta on 3rd April 2009 400 km off the southern Somali port of Kismaayu.

As already widely reported a ransom of $2.7 mil USD was delivered around noon today by aircraft to the ship.