Somali pirates have finally released the Greek owned ship which they hijacked in September. The ship's 19 crew members and $100 million worth of crude oil were all safely released after a ransom was paid to the hijackers. Ctesiphon Koukoulas told sources Saturday, that "Our primary concern is the safety of the ship and its crew. ... They released it when ransom was paid". He woudl not specify the amount for fear that it may complicate recovery of other crews and ships held in the pirated area. Although ships running through the area have been cautioned on which routes to take and areas to stay clear of , there is never certainty that they are safe from attack. The best they can do is "pray" that they make it through successfully.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister declared recently that their government will under no circumstances negotiate with the pirates and that it was up to the ship owners to manage the pirates. Immediately after, a radical Islamic group in Somalia declared that Muslim ships should not be siesed and that they would fight the pirates holding the Saudi ships.NATO has four warships, on duty off coastline of Somalia, which is an impoverished nation caught up in an Islamic insurgency that has had no functioning government since 1991. The NATO ships were dispatched to the region under a U.N. mandate to escort vessels chartered by the World Food Program to Somali ports, and to conduct patrols designed to deter pirates from attacking merchant ships transiting the Gulf of Aden. Next month the European Union will be sending in ships to replace those designated by NATO to help secure and patrol the area.
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