Somali pirates have freed four Iranian sailors held captive for more than three years, an Iranian official said on Thursday.
Iranian vessel with 24 sailors on board was hijacked close to Seychelles in 2015.
The managing director of Fishery Organization in Sistan-Baluchestan Province of Iran Hedayatullah Mirmoradzehi told Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that four of 24 Iranian hostages in Somalia were released.
“The four fishermen will be transferred to the city of Zahedan as soon as possible,” he said.
The official said the four will join another 16 sailors who were freed and currently in Nairobi.
“Sixteen more fishermen are now at Iran’s embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, who will return to Iran by a vessel in coming days,’ the official noted.
In February, suspected Somali pirates attacked a Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker.
Pirate attacks off the Somali coast surged in the 2017 following years of relative calm.
The peak year was 2011 when pirates launched 237 attacks and held hundreds of hostages, data from the International Maritime Bureau shows.
Several foreign navies, including those from the European Union and China, operate regularly in the area as part of anti-piracy missions.
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