The German tanker Longchamp has been released two months after being hijacked by Somalian pirates, the Hamburg-based shipping company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement announced on Saturday.
The German navy thwarted an attack on cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday and capture nine pirates, according to military officials in Berlin.
Pirates are demanding a ransom of $6 million (€4.7 million) for the release of a German tanker they highjacked in the Gulf of Aden last Thursday, news agency DPA reported on Monday.
Somali pirates hijacked a German gas tanker with 13 Filipino and Indonesian crew members in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, a Kenyan maritime official said.
The German Navy said on Thursday it had foiled a hijack attempt by Somali pirates on an Egyptian bulk carrier that left one crewman wounded on the merchant ship.
German-owned ships should fly Germany's flag if they want full protection from pirates off Somalia, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview published on Sunday.
The German cabinet on Wednesday gave the green light for the German navy to take part in a new European Union military operation to fight pirates off the coast of Somalia.
The captain of a German cruise ship plans to take drastic measures to save his passengers from pirates off the coast of Somalia, having them disembark in Yemen and picking them up later in Dubai, he told radio broadcaster NDR on Tuesday.
The German navy has thwarted an attack on a four-star cruise ship in the Gulf of Oman, according to reports from website of newsmagazine <i>Der Spiegel</i> late on Thursday.
A German navy helicopter has fished three men out of the ocean after Somali pirates hijacked a Liberia-flagged vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Friday morning, French navy sources have reported.
The German government has reiterated its calls for action against the pirates operating along the coast of Somalia, with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying this weekend, “We have to act urgently.”
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday he wants German military forces to take part in an EU mission to combat a growing number of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia.
In the wake of increasing attacks on foreign ships off the coast of Africa, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said he would like for Somalian pirates captured by German soldiers to be tried in the country’s courts.
The Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre said on Thursday that a German cargo ship was hijacked along with two other ships off the Somali coast in an unprecedented series of attacks.
The German couple kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Somalia last month were able to speak to <i>Der Spiegel</i> and have begged for help, according to reports by the German news magazine late on Tuesday.
