Vessel with 22 Indian crew let off by pirates; no ransom paid

Pirates, who had seized an oil tanker with an all-Indian crew of 22 off the Benin coast in north-west Africa, today released the vessel and its occupants after five days in captivity, officials said.
All crew members are safe and no ransom was paid for the release of the cargo vessel, which was reported "missing" on the evening of February 1 from the Contonou anchorage in the Gulf of Guinea, they said.
"I am happy to inform that Merchant Ship Marine Express with 22 Indian nationals on-board has been released," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted.
She also thanked the governments of Nigeria and Benin for their help and support in securing the release of the freighter and its crew. Swaraj had spoken to her Nigerian counterpart yesterday, seeking assistance in tracing the ship.

"The ship has been released and is back under the command of the captain," Director General of Shipping Malini Shankar told PTI over phone.
All the crew members will be disembarking at the ship's next port of call.

The pirates had switched-off all communication systems on the vessel after taking it over, prompting the navies of Benin and Nigeria to launch a search operation, a statement from the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) said.
The Panama-flagged vessel's location during the period of the captivity was not known, but thanks to the "coordinated efforts", she is now in international waters, sailing away from land to her next port of call, it said.

"The owner of the vessel is arranging the sign-off of all the crew members at the vessel's next port of calling," the statement said, without disclosing the location.
The DGS statement said the pirates disembarked from the vessel without making any demand for ransom or selling off the 13,500 tonnes of gasoline it contained.
In a Facebook post, Anglo Eastern, the ship manning agent, the company that was acting as an employment agency for seafarers on board the ship, said the vessel was the subject of a "pirate attack and seizure". It confirmed the safe release of the crew and the ship.

An official at the DGS had earlier said the waters where which the vessel was taken over are infested with sea pirates.
There had been a few incidents where pirates had let off hijacked vessels and crew after siphoning off the on-board cargo without demanding any ransom.
After the freighter was seized, DGS officials were in contact with the Indian mission in Nigeria, which was coordinating rescue efforts with local agencies.
MT Marine Express had gone missing less than a month after another vessel, 'MT Barret', disappeared off the coast of Benin in January, and was later confirmed to have been hijacked.

The 22 crew members of MT Barret, most of whom were Indians, were reportedly released after a ransom was paid.