NAIROBI, September 29. /TASS/. Somali pirates have left the Togo-flagged Eureka tanker and released all of its 12 crew members after holding them off the Puntland coast for nearly five months, The Daily Somalia reported, citing local sources.

According to the news portal, around 30 armed pirates left the vessel and handed over the seafarers - eight Egyptian and four Indian nationals - to locals. None of them was hurt.

Before leaving the tanker, the pirates damaged and set fire to the vessel. The bulk of petrochemicals has been pumped from the tanker and sold, the portal said.

The Eureka holding around 20,400 barrels of petrochemicals was on its way to the Somali port of Bosaso when it was seized off the Yemeni port of Qana on May 2. The vessel was redirected to the Puntland coast.

The crew was released amid the Puntland Maritime Police Force operation against pirate groups. Earlier, Puntland’s security forces took control over the seized tankers Sibu 1 and Honour 25.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia severely disrupted maritime shipping from the late 2000s through the late 2010s, when armed groups frequently attacked commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. International naval patrols significantly reduced the number of attacks in the early 2020s, but pirate activity has increased again in recent years.