The ForestWave shipping company in Groningen paid 340,000 dollars last year to pirates who had taken their ship, the FWN Rapide, and its crew hostage.
Translation by Traci White
In April of 2018, pirates boarded the FWN Rapide while it was en route from Ghana to Nigeria. The pirates took 11 of the 14 crew members hostage and released them around one month later. Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the pirates allegedly first asked for two million dollars, but a deal to release the kidnapped crew was eventually reached one day after one of the crew members contracted malaria.
The ransom money payment was revealed in court documents filed in South Africa which were obtained by Dagblad van het Noorden. RTV Noord reports that the shipping company did not comment on the story.
A 28-year-old man from Nigeria was arrested last month on suspicion of being connected to the hostage situation.
