Africa News
Somali pirates leave Ukrainian arms ship (2nd Roundup)
Feb 5, 2009, 13:43 GMT
Somali pirates evacuated a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons, ending a four-month hostage drama, officials said Thursday. EPA/MC2 JASON R. ZALASKY
Nairobi/Kiev - Somali pirates evacuated a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons, ending a four-month hostage drama, officials said Thursday.
The MV Faina was seized off the coast of Somalia in September and is carrying a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks, armored personnel carriers, munitions, and small arms.
'We know now they are leaving the ship in small groups,' Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The last pirate had left the ship by midday without harming any of a 21-man crew on board, officials in the administration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said.
The 'crew is fine and all the pirates appear to be gone,' Ukraine's Channel 5 television reported. 'But it is not clear when the ship can start moving again.'
A US naval frigate was en route to the freighter and US technicians would provide fuel to get the Faina under way, said Mykola Malomuzh, a spokesman for Ukraine's national intelligence agency the SBU at a Kiev press conference.
The Faina could be en route to the Kenyan port Mobassa under her own steam 'in four to six days.'
A total 21 crew members were known to be aboard the Faina, 17 of them Ukrainian nationals. One, the ship's Russian captain, died of a blood circulation problem shortly after the pirates attacked the cargo vessel.
A ransom of around 3.5 million dollars is believed to have been paid to release the ship after months of complicated negotiations and several false dawns. Early pirate ransom demands reached 30 million dollars.
A statement from Yushchenko's office made no reference to a ransom payment, but singled out 'Ukrainian special agents' for bringing the talks to a successful end, and allegedly ending pirate control of the cargo vessel.
The MV Faina was one of two high-profile ships - the other being a Saudi supertanker carrying over 100 million dollars worth of oil - seized during a surge in piracy in the second half of 2008.
US warships surrounded the ship at her mooring off Somalia amid concern the weapons could be used by Islamists waging a bloody insurgency on land.
Controversy also surrounds the cargo of the MV Faina, which was bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Kenya's government say that the arms shipment is theirs, but the ship's manifest seemed to suggest the tanks and weapons were in fact bound for South Sudan.
The weapons shipment would be delivered to the Kenyan government 'as that is the freight's destination,' said Malomuzh. 'Kenya's Minister of Defence and Chief of Staff is waiting for it.'
Piracy off the coast of Somalia peaked late last year. A total of over 40 ships were seized last year, bringing in ransoms estimated at 30 million dollars.
The presence of international warships reduced the number of hijackings from last year, but the area remains a dangerous place.
A total of 15 attacks have taken place since January 1, the latest involving the successful hijacking of German-owned LPG tanker, the MV Longchamp.
Around 10 foreign cargo ships and 200 crew remain in pirate hands, regional observers said.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Africa
- 1. Several dead in car bombing in northern Nigeria
- 2. Mogadishu blast kills seven, including sports chiefs
- 3. Seven dead in Mogadishu suicide bomb attack
- 4. ANC suspends Youth League leader with immediate effect
- 5. Police arrest Uganda's opposition leader and others at protest march
Older Talkback
page: 1
Lance is gay.
'Yawn'
Yes, I know. The typical U.S. citizen finds justice and equality to be boring.
What they want is to bathe in free money!! Yahoo!! Trillions of dollars of free money await you!!
Much more exciting for you, although your children may not like you for screwing them over with debt.
...we just invested 5000 lives and billions of dollars freeing 25 million Iraqi people, who just had a quieter election than Pakistani's did last year. America has the fairest court system in the world, has redressed racial quality to the point where we just elected our first African - american President, provides security for most of the democracies on earth, and pursues freedom worldwide.
In the last century, we managed to defeat two totalitarian powers, in two world wars, freed Europe from the Facist scum, defeated the Soviet Union in the cold war, saved south korea from communism and transformed it into a model of democracy, and managed to induce China into free enterprise. We stood against communism worldwide, and championed democracy too.
So run out and take another look at the world and ask yourself again who stands for freedom and equality, and backs it with lives and money, more than the USA. Be sure to tell me which nation this is, Lance because I'd love to know, and it might also rejuvinate your useless reputation. We are the world's champions of freedom, Lance.
'... ...we just invested 5000 lives and billions of dollars freeing 25 million Iraqi people...'
Funny! No mention of the 'shock and awe' cruise missile campaign to bomb them back to the stone age.
Dream on!
That is the quality of your debate talk.
'Lance, that makes ZERO sense'
Without talking about the negative aspects of the U.S. killing and occupation in Iraq, there is no way to compare whether Iraq is better under Saddam v.s. U.S. control.
I would say, killing wise and in other ways, so far they are about the same.
You write 'we just invested 5000 lives and billions of dollars freeing 25 million Iraqi people'
No, SP4 .... we were told by the guys who started the war that the US had to do it 'to find WMDs', 'freeing 25 million people' was not the reason given as 'imminent', remember?
I know you don't ... you have selective memory.
And guess what, SP4 ... They found NO WMDs. And Osama is still free. (was your war to keep Osama free too? You've done it.)
Then they (and YOU) had to twist your story all around to try to say it 'was always' to free the Iraqi people ... because your original justification, and fear mongering was WRONG!
Fearful little wuss's like yourself SP4, were so friggin afraid, that you started a war, in a country that didn't attack us, on the fearful premise of 'They MIGHT have something, that they MAY use someday, MAYBE, if they have them'
Then your silly ass, SP4 ... comes on this forum and endlessly tries to blame the Dems for starting the war.
BTW, you say '5000 lives' .... BULLSH*T!!!! Try including more than 25,000 soldiers permanently injured, and more than 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians, costing the US taxpayer over a Trillion dollars (so far, and climbing).
Maybe YOU SP4, should take another look at the world George Bush created and left for us ... but we know you never will.
Why do you guys bother even reading what Lance writes, he clearly has not one single clue on any of the subjects he pontificates on. You may as well talk to your cat, at least your cat wouldnt make up BS to try and impress you. He's a retard, simple as that.
Lance, I wish I knew which country you are from, because, the United States of America needs to send an honest diplomat their as soon as possible.
page: 1
lanceFeb 5th, 2009 - 16:20:24
Might makes right.
There is only reason why these bastards failed to 'occupy' other nation's property: They did not have enough firepower.
Now, a good nation like the U.S., laden with nukes, WMDs and other mass killing technology, can easily get away with occupying any nation's property and mass killing their occupants.
Report this comment