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Somali pirates release Danish vessel

All the five Danish crew aboard the freighter Danica White are safe and will return home soon, Andrew Mwangura, director of the Mombasa-based Seafarers Assistance Programme told Khaleej Times from Mombasa over the telephone yesterday.

The vessel, Mwangura said, has sailed to a French naval base in Djibouti and its crew will fly home from there. “The vessel will then sail on to Mombasa with a new crew on board to discharge its cargo,” Mwangura said.

However, Mwangura said it was still not clear whether the shipping company paid any ransom for the release of its crew and the hijacked freighter. “The sea pirates were demanding a USD one million ransom. The vessel was freed on Wednesday evening. But we do not know whether any ransom was actually paid or not,” Mwangura added. The Danish freighter with five crew members was hijacked on June 2, about 444 km off the Somalian coast while heading to Mombasa Port to deliver about 1,000 tonnes of construction material.

The five crew members are undergoing a medical evaluation before reuniting with their families, said Mwangura.

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