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MV Abdullah sets sail for homeThe crew of the Bangladeshi-flagged vessel were captured and held by Somali pirates for over a month
Published : 30 Apr 2024, 03:16 PM
The MV Abdullah, the Bangladeshi-flagged vessel captured and held by Somali pirates for over a month, is on its way back home.
At 1:45pm on Tuesday, the ship was located in the Arabian Sea near the Oman coast.
According to information from the Maritime Traffic monitoring agency, the MV Abdullah departed from the Mina Saqr port in the United Arab Emirates around 4am on Tuesday.
The vessel is scheduled to arrive at the Fujairah port in the UAE on Tuesday night, Maritime Traffic said. The MV Abdullah will refuel there before setting off again.
Mizanul Islam, media focal person for the Kabir Group – the owners of the ship, said, “The MV Abdullah has departed for home.”
It set off 44 days after the vessel was captured by pirates.
The ship may reach Bangladesh on May 12 carrying 56,000 metric tonnes of stone.
Around 8pm on Apr 27, the MV Abdullah had departed the Al Hamriya port in the UAE for the nearby port of Mina Saqr.
The owners said that day the vessel would depart for Bangladesh on Sunday after picking up goods, but it was not possible. It instead departed early on Tuesday morning.
On Mar 12, Somali pirates seized control of the MV Abdullah and took the 23 sailors on board hostage. The vessel was transporting 55,000 tonnes of coal from Mozambique to the United Arab Emirates at the time.
After capturing the vessel, the pirates moved it to the Somali coast and regularly changed its position. Nine days after the vessel was hijacked, the pirates contacted the owners through a third party.
They were released after one month in captivity. They reached the UAE on Saturday and are expected to arrive in Bangladesh by mid-May.
