Somali pirates freed a Greek cargo ship for ransom.

Somali pirates freed after a ransom Greek cargo ship, said a European naval mission EU NAVFOR. "EU NAVFOR can confirm that the company owned by the Greek cargo ship flying the Panamanian flag Navios Apollon, captured Dec. 28, was released on the morning of 28 February", - stated in the mission. On board were 19 crew members: captain - a citizen of Greece, the rest - Filipinos. The vessel goes to Oman and from there to India, confirmed the RIA Novosti representative of the Greek Coast Guard. According to her, the vessel was not released Sunday, and on Saturday evening, shortly after the ransom was paid. "The whole team feels good," - said the agency interlocutor. Earlier, Reuters reported with reference to the Coordinator of the East African aid mariners Andrew Mwangura, that the ransom to pirates was dropped from the plane before. Dry cargo vessel Navios Apollon Greek company owns and sails under the flag of Panama. He was captured 200 miles from the Seychelles. At that time, cargo ship bound from Florida (USA) in India with a cargo of fertilizer. At the present time in captivity of Somali pirates are five ships and about 120 sailors. According to a recent report of the UN secretary general on the issue of piracy off the coast of Somalia during 2008 from around the world has reported 306 incidents of piracy, 136 of which occurred in the area of East Africa. In the period from 1 January to 30 September 2009 reported 300 incidents worldwide, of which 160 occurred in the eastern coast of the African continent. Somalia can not cope with the problem of piracy, since ceased to exist as a single state as early as 1991, with the fall of the dictatorial regime of Siad Barre, who ruled from the end of 1960. At the present time as the sole legitimate authority in the country of the international community recognizes the Federal Government of Somalia, but the latter controls only part of the capital - the city of Mogadishu. The remaining parts of Somalia under the control of unrecognized state entities, or are self-governing territories, whose leadership has a different - often opposing - views on reunification. For example, in areas in the south and north-east Somalia, ruled by local clans and radical Islamist movements in the north-west since 1991, there is the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland.