German ship freed

Somali pirates have released the German-owned cargo ship Patriot after about three weeks' captivity in the Gulf of Aden.

The 31,000-ton grain carrier, owned by Hamburg-based Blumenthal JMK, was seized in the Gulf of Aden in late April with a crew of 17 on board, none of them German.

"The Patriot is free," said Andrew Mwangura, director of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme said on Tuesday. A Berlin Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that the ship was freed last Friday, but declined to give any details the ship's release, or whether a ransom was paid for its release.

Two further German vessels remain held by pirates: the Hansa Stavanger container ship, captured at the beginning of April off Somalia with 24 crew members including five Germans and the cargo ship MV Victoria and its 11 Romanian crew, captured earlier this month.

Indicted on piracy charges

Meanwhile, a Somali teenager accused of holding hostage a US ship captain in the Indian Ocean after an attempted hijacking has been indicted on ten counts including piracy and kidnapping. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse is the only surviving accused pirate from the foiled bid to hijack the US container ship Maersk Alabama last month. He is to be arraigned at US District Court in Manhattan on Thursday.

In the framework of its anti-piracy naval mission Atalanta, the European Union has an average of seven frigates patrolling the waters in the Gulf of Aden and is currently deliberating whether to extend the intervention zone eastwards as a far as the Seychelles.

A flotilla of foreign navy warships, including three German navy vessels, have prevented several hijackings in the pst weeks, but they have not managed to deter the Somali pirates from attacking ships on one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.

db, dpa/Reuters/AFP

Editor: Nick Amies.