By SPA,
Pretoria : Somalia’s authorities have sent troops to release the Amiya Scan cargo ship with four Russian seamen, a local official said , according to Itar-Tass.
The dry cargo ship Amiya Scan, belonging to a Dutch company and sailing under a Panamanian flag was on its way to the Romanian port of Constanta, when pirates in the neutral waters of the Gulf of Aden attacked it. It was traveling from Kenya’s Mombassa port.
The cargo ship has been taken to the Ras-Binna port in northeastern Somalia. Attempts to release the sailors are being made by the authorities of the self-proclaimed State of Puntland.
Ras-Binna is located 250 kilometers to the east from the port of Bosaso. The Somalians are calling on the hi-jacked ship’s owner not to give in to ransom demands.The Puntland State’s soldiers released a ship belonging to the United Arab Emirates from captivity in April this year. One pirate was killed, seven were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Last year alone, more than 25 ships were attacked by pirates in that part of the Gulf of Aden, the International Maritime Bureau reports. Piracy in Somalia, one of the poorest African countries, has become a lucrative business, for Western companies pay sizeable ransoms for seamen captured by pirates.
Somalia’s authorities, which fail to ensure security off their coasts, accuse Western companies of paying ransoms to local pirates.
Piracy is rampant off Somalia, which has functioned without an effective central government since the fall of a dictator in 1991.