Somali pirates release Vietnamese ship

Somali pirates have released a Vietnamese-owned cargo ship with 24 crewmembers seized in January this year, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday, referring to a regional maritime official. "Hoang Son Sun was released recently... The vessel is now heading to Salalah port in Oman where she will dock either on Monday or Tuesday," Xinhua quoted Andrew Mwangura, maritime editor for Somalia Report, as saying. The 22,835-ton Mongolian-flagged bulk carrier was hijacked on January 17, 2011 approximately 520 nautical miles south east of the port of Muscat, Oman. All the crewmembers were Vietnamese nationals. There was no information about whether the pirates had been paid any ransom to release the ship. Piracy has surged off the Horn of Africa in recent years, especially off the east African nation of Somalia, which has had no functioning central government for two decades.