After being held hostage by Somali pirates for almost four years, the remaining crewmen of the MV Albedo are now free. 
According to media reports and the Maritime Piracy Human Response Programme (MPHRP), the hostages managed to escape their captors in the early hours of Friday morning by climbing through a small window and making for a nearby village where they were taken in by government-affiliated militia.
“Few of them had shoes, some had only their underclothes, but they managed to escape through a window and reach a place of safety,” Omar Sheikh Ali Osoble, counter-piracy focal point for the Galmudug regional administration, told the Daily Telegraph.
The MV Albedo was hijacked on November 26th, 2010, as it transited from Mombassa, Kenya, to Jebel Ali, UAE. Repeated negotiations to free the hostages failed, with relatives and a wealthy donor finally securing the freedom of seven Pakistani crew in July 2012 for a $1.2 million ransom. The gang holding the ship repeatedly fought internally and with the investors who funded the hijacking, resulting in a reported attempt by the investors to seize the ship and its hostages from Guushaaye, the pirate leader who held it.
The MV Albedo itself sank in rough weather during last summer’s monsoon, with the loss of five crew and five pirates, who drowned as they abandoned ship.
