Four Indonesian seamen return home after Somali pirate ordeal
TANGERANG: Four Indonesian seamen who were kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates aboard an oil tanker for more than five months arrived back home on Tuesday, an AFP reporter saw.
Four Indonesian seamen who were kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates aboard an oil tanker for over five months have returned home, according to the New Straits Times. The men were among 17 crew members rescued from the MT Honour 25 tanker in April, when maritime police from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia stormed the vessel.
Five crew members were killed during the incident, all of them non-Indonesian nationals. The four Indonesian seamen were welcomed at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport by their families and officials, including Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir. Foreign Minister Nasir thanked the Indonesian skipper Ashari Samadikun for helping ensure the safety of the surviving crew members during the rescue.
Ashari expressed regret for the deaths of the five crew members, saying he couldn't keep his promise to bring all his crew members back safely. Somali piracy has seen a resurgence, with at least 15 attacks since April, the highest number since 2013.
Brief written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
