Somali pirates free commercial vessel after one week in captivity

Mowlid Hassan, an officer within Puntland maritime police forces (PMPF), told Puntland Mirror that there was no ransom was paid to the pirates.

The release happened after dialogue by local traditional elders and representatives with the pirates, who seized the tanker oil on Monday, as local sources told to the media.

According to the sources, the members of pirates were not arrested but instead were given route to leave once they disembarked.

Earlier Thursday, at least two Puntland soldiers wounded after they exchanged gunfire with pirates who hijacked an oil tanker in Alula district of Bari region.

The number of attacks by Somali pirates has dropped significantly in the past five years.

This was the first reported attack on a merchant vessel off the coast of Somalia in more than five years.

In recent, speaking to the local media some of the local fishermen in the coastal areas of Puntland have threatened to take up guns another time and return piracy to battle what they called “the foreign trawlers.”