Somalia’s forgotten hostages
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The sailors held captive for years, and the man who managed to free them.
Somali pirates made millions of dollars hijacking ships and holding their crews hostage, if no ransom was paid though, sailors could spend years languishing in captivity.
When retired British Army Colonel John Steed set out to try to free what he called "Somalia’s forgotten hostages" he had no money and no hostage-negotiation experience, so how did he do it?
Colin Freeman, who was himself taken hostage in Somalia, hears the remarkable stories of the sailors and their saviours.
Producer: Joe Kent Sound: Rob Farquhar and Neil Churchill
(Image: Armed Somali pirate standing on the coast looking to sea. Credit: Mohamed Dahir/AFP/Getty Images)
ARCHIVE: Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures) directed by Paul Greengrass
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we begin, just a warning, there are descriptions of violence in this program. |
| 0:07.0 | The sun rose over the Indian Ocean as the Albedo, an aging cargo cargo ship sailed through calm waters. |
| 0:15.0 | I very enjoy sailing. I was that kind of person who likes to travel all over the world. |
| 0:24.0 | Shapria Ali Abadi, a sailor from Iran, |
| 0:27.0 | had just finished a long overnight shift. |
| 0:30.0 | He was in this bunk, exhausted. |
| 0:33.0 | I remember it was about six in the morning |
| 0:36.0 | when I heard the voice on the ship radio. |
| 0:42.0 | Attention, everybody, |
| 0:45.0 | everybody planned by. The sheep is under pirates attacked. |
| 0:50.0 | I just wake up. What is a man another sailor from India was also in bed |
| 0:56.7 | pirates are coming piles are coming all crew stand-abed I jumped out of bed and headed for that bridge and I could see the pirates approaching, shooting. |
| 1:11.0 | One was with light machine gun. |
| 1:13.0 | Another two was with AK-47. |
| 1:15.0 | And the driver was holding the rocket launcher. |
| 1:18.0 | And I quickly took whole crew to the engine room. |
| 1:25.0 | In less than five minutes the pirates captured the captain and third officer |
| 1:30.0 | and we decided to surrender to save the lives of those two. |
| 1:37.0 | The albedo was on its way from Dubai to Kenya. |
| 1:44.0 | The pirates forced the coup to change course to the Somali coastline. |
| 1:49.0 | The pirates start shouting, |
| 1:51.0 | we need 30 million, 40 million, 50 million. |
... |
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