Somalia: Pirates collect ransoms, release a couple of ships

Reported here:

Somali pirates released a German- owned ship and a Japanese vessel after ransoms were paid, a piracy-monitoring group said.

The German cargo vessel, the Barbuda and Antigua-flagged BBC Trinidad, was freed after $1.1 million was paid to the hijackers, Andrew Mwangura, head of the Nairobi-based Seafarers Assistance Programme, said by phone today from Nairobi, Kenya. It's unclear which Japanese vessel was released.

``The German ship was released yesterday and now she is heading to Muscat,'' Mwangura said. ``There were two Japanese ships in captivity. We don't know which one was released.''