Somalia Pirates Release Hijacked Ship and Crew After Ransom Payment

The 17 seafarers walked off the gangway of their vessel on Thursday, thin but alive, in an episode that security analysts say is the clearest signal yet that Somali piracy — once thought largely defeated by international naval patrols — is experiencing a troubling resurgence.

The vessel, a bulk cargo carrier registered in Liberia, was seized in the Gulf of Aden six weeks ago. Pirates boarded in the early hours of the morning using the same fast-skiff method that defined the piracy peak of 2008 to 2012. The crew, comprising nationals from the Philippines, Ukraine, India and Kenya, were held on the vessel as it was taken to an anchorage off the Puntland coast.

Negotiations, conducted through a London-based maritime security firm, resulted in a ransom payment whose amount was not disclosed. International Maritime Organisation guidelines advise against paying ransoms but acknowledge the reality that commercial operators often have no viable alternative when crew lives are at immediate risk.

Kenya's government confirmed that one of the released crew members is a Kenyan national, a deck officer from Mombasa named by his family as Gerald Mutua, 34. Mutua, who has been working on international vessels for eight years, called his family from Djibouti as soon as he was repatriated, telling them he was "okay, just very tired."

The African Union Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and EUNAVFOR — the European anti-piracy naval force — have issued a joint statement calling for enhanced patrolling of the Gulf of Aden. Analysts say piracy networks are exploiting the attention gap created as the West's security focus has shifted to other global hotspots. The International Maritime Bureau counted 12 Somali piracy incidents in 2026 so far — more than in 2023 and 2024 combined.