Ships hijacked off both east and west coasts of Africa

Somali pirates on Thursday freed an Algerian-owned ship with 25 crew members onboard after 10 months of captivity, the same day pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with 21 Filipino crew members, Seatrade Asia online reports. The European Union Naval Force’s Cmdr. Harrie Harrison said the pirates freed the MV Blida and it was on its way to a port. Its crew members come from Algeria, Ukraine and the Philippines. Two became severely ill during their captivity and were released by the pirates to naval vessels nearby.
The ship was hijacked in January about 150 nautical miles southeast of the Omani port of Salalah.
The Philippine government, meanwhile, said Thursday that the MT Liquid Velvet was seized Monday as it approached the gulf heading to India. The ship is flagged in the Marshall Islands with Greek ownership.
Separately, reports from the BBC confirmed that pirates have seized an oil products tanker off southern Nigeria. According to security officials, gunmen boarded the MT Halifax off Port Harcourt, the main city in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. ?The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), according to the BBC, confirmed that owners of the vessel had lost contact with the tanker on 30 October. According to the IMB, the vessel's 25-man crew were taken hostage by the pirates who expect to make off with the ship's oil. ?The nationalities of those onboard are thought to be Filipino and Indian, with an Italian ship master.