- - - - - - - - -A Danish cargo ship and its crew that were hijacked by Somali pirates in June have been released after 83 days in captivity after a ransom was paid, the Danish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The MV Danica White was carrying building materials from Dubai to Kenya when it was seized off Somalia in the world’s most dangerous waterway.
“We have talked to the crew and they are feeling OK at this point,” the Foreign Ministry’s head of citizen services Lars Thuesen told a news conference.
“It’s been a terrible experience for the hostages, being held for more than 80 days not knowing what was going on.”
Danish TV2 News reported security firm Protocols said it had paid ransom of $1.5 million (753,000 pounds) for the release of the ship and crew.
[…]
After being freed, the Danica White headed for Djibouti about three days away, escorted by the French corvette Blaison. The crew will fly from there to be reunited with their families.
Now comes the obligatory nostalgic nod to the departed Somali Taliban, who made the trains run on time… Oh, wait! No trains in Somalia!
Well, at least they lopped off the hands and/or heads of malefactors:
Such attacks have increased since a Somali Islamist movement that brought a semblance of order to the country for six months was ousted in January. Piracy remains a significant threat to sea trade and cost billions of dollars annually.
“Semblance of order”: that’s the stock phrase. Run “Somalia ‘semblance of order’” through Google News and see what you get…
7 comments:
They are going to regret paying any ransom. Now it will happen again and again.
Will the Danes start arming their merchant vessels now, do you think?
Time was, the logical responses -- merchant ships going armed, and convoying when in the most hazardous waters -- would have followed immediately. But these days, the only armed vessels on the world's waterways are military vessels -- warships. And there simply aren't enough of them to establish justice on the high seas.
We shall see.
To Francis W. Porretto
Yes there are enough.
We have real time satelite observation, aircraft carriers, other ships deploying helicopters, long range surveillance patrols planes, long range drones, subs, etc.
What they haven't at all are those tiny things inch wide called balls.
In some sort of a sudden wake-up the Danish Navy will deploy the frigate "Olfert Fisher" to pirate-infested waters. Good morning....
To kepiblanc
This what we call here a dandruff strike.
Dandruff strike ??? - Over here we call it "observing events through the great retrospectroscope"
"Will the Danes start arming their merchant vessels now, do you think?"
Nope. The labour union is suggesting that every ship contains the ransom money in advance, that hostages can be released immediately and quickly sail in another load of cash for the poor pirates...
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