Crew Of Spanish Tuna Boat Hijacked By Somali Pirates Freedff

The 26 crew members onboard a fishing boat hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia nearly a week ago have been freed, Spanish and Somali authorities said Saturday.

”The ship is free and the pirates disappeared into their villages,” said Abdi Khalif Ahmed, chairman of Haradhere port local authority in central Somalia, by telephone.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega declined to say if a ransom had been paid to the hijackers, insisting the release of the Playa de Bakio had been achieved by “cooperation and diplomacy.”

”The fishing boat Bakio has been liberated and is now sailing in total freedom, escorted by a Spanish frigate toward safer waters,” De la Vega told a news conference.

The 250-foot tuna fishing boat from Spain’s Basque region was captured Sunday while it was fishing in international waters off the coast from Mogadishu, Somalia.


Playa de Bakio

Piracy is rampant along Somalia’s 1,880-mile coast, which is the longest in Africa and near key shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.

Pirates firing rocket-propelled grenades boarded skipper Amadeo Alvarez Gomez’s boat and captured the crew of 13 Spaniards and 13 men from African countries.

De la Vega said the crew’s release had been achieved through negotiations in London between the Spanish government, the ship owners and representatives of the hijackers. The crew was in good health, she said.

”The 26 crew are in perfect condition, and we are communicating this to the boat's owners and the families,” she said.

Spain had sent one of its frigates, the Mendez Nunez, to the region, and it was now escorting the Bakio, De la Vega said. It had been on maneuvers in the Red Sea when it was diverted to the Somali coast.

”We are satisfied because the crew’s safety has been preserved at all times,” De la Vega said.

She said the crew would be relieved from duty aboard the fishing vessel “in the shortest space of time possible,” to allow them to fly back to Spain.

De la Vega said the government would be taking up the subject of maritime piracy at a European Commission meeting Tuesday.

”We have taken steps so that similar situations do not happen again,” De la Vega said.

Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have a navy, and a transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help has struggled to assert control. The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region.

Earlier this month, Somali pirates hijacked a French luxury yacht in the Gulf of Aden. A French military helicopter later captured six suspected pirates who face preliminary charges in France after the yacht’s crew was released April 11.