Somali pirates are paid record $3.5 million ransom for MV Faina

Somali pirates holding a ship laden with Russian tanks were believed to be preparing to release the vessel last night after being paid up to $3.5 million (£2.3 million), the biggest ransom on record. The MV Faina was hijacked more than four months ago.
US warships and helicopters have kept a watch amid fears that her 33 T72 tanks and other weaponry could fall into the hands of Islamists who are waging a bloody insurgency on land.
Last night Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Association, said that talks to free the Ukrainian-operated vessel and her 20-strong crew had concluded. “We hear they are counting the money but I don’t want to say any more until the crew is on dry land,” he added. “The ship could be released in the middle of the night or at daybreak.”
A businessman in the town of Galkayo said: “The crew will be free anytime from now.”

Up to 50 pirates may have been involved. The ship’s Russian captain died soon after the hijacking from a stroke, according to the first mate.
Small dinghies brought food and water from the mainland to the 150m long vessel to feed the crew of Ukrainians, Russians and a Latvian. The pirates made sure they could celebrate the end of Ramadan by bringing aboard a consignment of goats to barbecue on deck.
The record Faina ransom follows a lucrative few months for Somalia’s modern-day brigands. They snatched 42 ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in 2008 in a series of increasingly bold attacks. Their success provoked an unprecedented international response. Europe, Nato, Russia, India and China all sent warships to police shipping lanes

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