Eight Egyptian sailors seized from a tanker off Somalia’s coast have been freed, months after they were taken captive by armed pirates during a hijacking.
The release of the MT Eureka crew members came after Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held talks with Somali and Yemeni officials, his office said in a statement.
Armed pirates hijacked the vessel while it was sailing off the Puntland region of Somalia in early May. The vessel had a crew of 22, including eight Egyptians, and remained anchored off Somalia after it was seized, Egyptian state media reported at the time.
Nader Zaki, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Mr Abdelatty has instructed the Egyptian embassy in Mogadishu to receive the sailors, check on their well-being and enable their return on the earliest available flight.
The ministry’s consular sector previously met the sailors’ families to update them on efforts to secure their release, while the Mogadishu embassy helped maintain communication between the sailors and their families during captivity.
Negotiations with the hijackers had collapsed after the pirates reportedly demanded a higher ransom, taking the issue back to “square one”, Capt El Sayed El Shazly El Naggar, head of Egypt's Maritime Officers Syndicate and liaison officer with the International Transport Workers' Federation, said in early June.
Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011, a year when 237 attacks were reported. Attacks in regional waters at the time cost the global economy about $7 billion, with $160 million paid in ransom money, Oceans Beyond Piracy reported.
The threat was reduced by measures including increased international naval patrols and the strengthening of Somalia's central government, leaving Somali pirates largely inactive for several years.
However, attacks have resumed in recent years, partly due to increased insecurity in Red Sea shipping linked to attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have targeted commercial vessels in the region.
