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Pinoy Abroad

EU-NAVFOR: Pirates free tanker with 4 Pinoy seamen


Four Filipino crew members and 26 of their shipmates aboard a chemical tanker hijacked earlier in the Somali Basin regained their freedom when pirates released their vessel Thursday after four months in captivity. The European Union Naval Task Force Somalia (EU-NAVFOR) said Thursday night the Panamanian-flagged Hannibal II seized in November 2010 was released from pirate control. "The vessel and her crew of 30 are believed to be making for a safe port. The crew members are from Tunisia, Philippines, Croatia, Georgia, Russia and Morocco," EU-NAVFOR said in a bulletin on its website. It said the vessel had 31 crew members when it was taken by pirates last Nov. 11, but one crew member was evacuated due to possible appendicitis. As of Thursday night (Manila time), there was no information on the condition of the released vessel and of the remaining crew members. Tunisia's state-run Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported the ship is now sailing for Djibouti. It quoted its Ministry of Transport and Equipment as saying "all the conditions had been provided to secure the protection of the ship and the crew," adding that a Tunisian aircraft will be sent to bring the crew back from Djibouti. An earlier EU-NAVFOR bulletin indicated that the 24,105-ton MV Hannibal II was pirated while en route from Malaysia to Suez last Nov. 11. EU-NAVFOR said the tanker was carrying vegetable oils from Pasir Gudang to Suez at the time. The master of the vessel reported that he had been attacked and boarded by pirates in an area some 860 nautical miles east of The Horn of Africa – a location which is considerably closer to India than it is to Somalia. At the time it was seized last November, the MV Hannibal II had 31 crew on board, including 23 Tunisians, four Filipinos, one Croatian, one Georgian, one Russian and one Moroccan.—JMA/JV, GMA News

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