Whipped with electrical wires, denied food for several weeks, drinking sea water to survive, being thrown into the sea and having an ear slashed were just a few of the torturous ordeals 22 hostages including a Ghanaian Jewel Ahiable endured when being kept captive by Somali pirates.
Only released in December 2012, Ahiable and the 21 foreign nationals lived in fear for nearly three years.
The Panama-flagged MV Iceberg One cargo ship was hijacked by Somali pirates as it set off in March 2010 on a voyage to Britain with a cargo of electrical goods.
But the men were left to endure the longest pirate hijacking in modern maritime history, after the Dubai-owners of the ship refused to pay the $10 million ransom they demanded.
And when the ransom money did not arrive, the torture sessions were increased.
Ahiable, who was the ship’s electrical engineer, added that their health deteriorated quickly after only being fed one meal a day of rice and dirty drinking water. Ahiable said after several unsuccessful attempts to get their ransom from the owner of the ship who was cooling off in Dubai, the irate pirates whipped them with sticks and wires and at times tied them up.
An Indian chief officer Dhiraj Tiwari, according to Ahiable, disappeared and has never been seen since the rescue but he hopes that he is still alive.
“We didn’t think we were ever going to get out of there,” Ahiable said, adding “I feel like I have been reborn.”
One man became depressed seven months into the ordeal and killed himself, Ahiable recounted.
But help finally arrived. Ahiable said a 13-day rescue operation culminating in a gun battle between maritime police and the pirates, succeeded in rescuing them.
Ahiable said the pirates finally let them go after the 13-day battle. He said, “the boat came three times and took all of us outside…and for the first time in almost three years, we had stepped foot on land”.
Ahiable and his other colleagues who were Filipino, Indian, Pakistani and Sudanese boarded a UN plane for Kenya.
According to Ahiable, one of the pirate leaders said they only released the ship after negotiation with Puntland officials and local elders.
Ahiable, who is back in Ghana and unemployed, is currently in school hoping to graduate with a degree in Mechanical engineering.
International efforts including increased navy patrols have recently helped bring pirate attacks near the horn of Africa down 50 percent.
But more than 100 hostages are still in the hands of Somali pirates, who raid ships in the Gulf of Aden and hold the captives for ransom.
British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler were held hostage for 388 days.
The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were seized as they sailed their yacht in the Indian Ocean, near the Seychelles, on October 23, 2009, and held in the harsh Somali bushland by heavily armed pirates.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
