Helicopter-borne French troops swooped in on Somali pirates after they released 30 hostages from a yacht, seizing six of the pirates and recovering sacks of money — apparently ransom paid by the yacht’s owners to win the captives’ release.
The pirates had boarded the 88m French luxury yacht Ponant a week ago, capturing its crew off the coast of Somalia.
General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the chief of staff of France’s armed forces, said the pirates released the hostages on Friday after negotiations with the ship’s owner. That phase of the operation was calm, with no weapons fired and the hostages brought smoothly to safely, he said.
Afterward, however, a French attack helicopter chased a vehicle belonging to the pirates as it fled the scene, firing to destroy its engine, he said. There were conflicting reports about what happened next.
Dahir Abdulqadir, a governor in the region where the yacht was held, said officials had heard “reports over VHF radio that at least eight people were killed.” The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy “categorically denied” that any pirates died in the raid.
Georgelin said six pirates — half the total — were brought into French custody with clearance from Somalia. He said they would be tried in French courts.
The pirates “gave themselves up without too much difficulty,” he said.
While insisting the French state did not pay a ransom, the general hinted heavily that the boat’s owners did.
“Naturally, absolutely no public money was paid in this affair,” Georgelin said.
“Check with the ship owner. In capturing the pirates, we also recovered some interesting bags. We recovered part of the ransom that was probably paid,” he said
An official in Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland region, near where the yacht was held, had warned France earlier this week against paying a ransom, saying it would encourage pirates to continue taking hostages.
The chief of the company that owns the ship declined to comment on the issue.
“It’s obviously a very delicate and difficult context, and so the only thing you should take from this is the outcome — crew members who are going to be able to go home to their families,’’ Jean-Emmanuel Sauvee told reporters after meeting with Sarkozy and families of the freed hostages.
Karim Meghoufel, the brother-in-law of a pastry chef on board the boat, said, “We don’t know how much they paid, and in any case, we don’t want to know.”
The hostages, including six Filipinos and a Ukrainian, were in good condition on Friday, officials said.
After the hostages were freed, they were put on a French military vessel and sent toward Djibouti. Family members said they were expected back in France today.
According to the shipowner’s Web site, the three-mast, 64-passenger Ponant features four decks, two restaurants and indoor and outdoor luxury lounges. About a dozen pirates stormed the yacht on April 4 as it was returning without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea.
France’s military quickly mobilized, sending in military vessels and a commando force that conducts anti-terrorist and hostage rescue operations.
Somalia has been wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy and does not have its own navy. A transitional government formed in 2004 with UN help has struggled to assert control.
Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic aide, Jean-David Levitte, said France planned to pitch anti-piracy measures to the UN Security Council.
One suggestion is for states that can afford it to help with maritime patrols in waters where pirate attacks are a problem, he said.
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