Pirates release crew of vessel hijacked off coast of Nigeria

This morning, the crew of the "Cape Bird" tanker, which was captured on October 8 by pirates off the coast of Nigeria, was released. This was announced by Georgy Karbelashvili, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. The crew included 12 citizens of Georgia and 4 citizens of Russia.

"By joint efforts of authorities and management of the Company "Ship management Bhatia", which owns the captured vessel, we managed to secure the release of the crew, which include citizens of different countries. Today at 6:00 a.m. the passenger ship took on its board sailors who were hostages, and now they are in safety," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent quotes Georgy Karbelashvili as saying.

The Russian trade union of sailors states that they are alive and feel well, the "ITAR-TASS" reported. However, Sergey Panyushkin, the director of Novorossiysk recruitment agency "Columbia", refuses to provide information about conditions of release, till the ship enters the port, the "Interfax" reports.

Let us remind you that on October 11 Irakli Sharabidze, Deputy Director of the National Maritime Agency of Georgia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, referring to ship owners of the captured vessel as saying that they had agreed with the pirates of the following: the pirates take all the cargo on board, that is, 40 tons of gasoline, and release the crew and the vessel; and that discharge of the ship had been already started, and it would last two or three days, and in already three or four days all crew members would be released.