Following the purported payment of a ransom of $5 million (€4.7 million) by the ship’s Bangladeshi owners, Somali pirates on Sunday freed the MV Abdullah.
The CEO of the shipping firm, KSRM, Meherul Karim, announced that all 23 crew members were released safely.
“The pirates called us when they reached near the Somalia coast” and one of them spoke English, Karim told reporters in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
“He communicated with us till we finalized the negotiation,” he added. “We will not discuss or reveal the amount of ransom money.”
Three sacks of US cash were thrown onto the ship by an airplane, according to the wife of the ship’s master, who spoke to the AFP news agency.
According to news agency Reuters, two of the Somali pirates on board the ship were involved in the $5 million ransom.
“The money was brought to us two nights ago as usual… we checked whether the money was fake or not. Then we divided the money into groups and left, avoiding the government forces,” Abdirashiid Yusuf, one of the pirates, told Reuters.
