MV Naham 3

Summary

Somali pirates boarded the Omani-flagged fishing vessel Naham 3 off the Seychelles. The 29 crew (Vietnamese, Filipino, Cambodian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian) were taken ashore and held in Somali coastal camps for 4.5 years — the second-longest held Somali hostage case. The vessel was scuttled by the pirates. On 22 October 2016, the 26 surviving crew (3 had died in captivity) were released after a $1.5 million ransom raised through international NGO coordination + Oceans Beyond Piracy. The case became the definitive modern reference for prolonged fishing-fleet hostage cases + drove NGO focus on non-flag-state coordination of ransom operations.

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