Sunday, February 28, 2010
The bulk carrier Navios Apollon was seized about 800 miles off the Somali coast north of the Seychelles, while sailing from the United States to India with a cargo of fertilizer.
"The last gunman disembarked from the ship last night. She is steaming out to safe waters," Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Assistance Program told Reuters by phone.
An unspecified sum of money was air-dropped on to the ship as a ransom, maritime officials and members of the gang said.
All 19 members of the crew, one Greek and 18 Filipinos, were safe, Mwangura added. The vessel is managed by a Greek firm, Navios ShipManagement.
Piracy attacks rose by almost 40 percent worldwide last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state of Somalia accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Source: Reuters