A group of 26 sailors who were seized on board their ship in 2012 by Somali pirates were freed on Saturday after spending nearly five years in captivity.
The 26 sailors were from China, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan.
They were flown to Kenya’s capital Nairobi, where they were received by their respective embassies.
It is now emerging that they went through horrible conditions while in captivity, as their captors cared very little for their well-being.
A Filipino sailor is reported by the BBS to say that they were only giver very little amounts of water, and that they felt like “the walking dead” by the end of their ordeal.
They sailors also say they had to survive on eating rats as the pirates at times did not give them any food.
The sailors were originally 29, but one died during the capture of their ship and another two died from illness while in captivity.
“The pirates won’t get medicine for you, they say that they don’t have money to buy medicine. That’s how two young men have already died for nothing,” one of the pirates Shen Jui-chang said.
Taiwan’s foreign affairs ministry said the men were freed after a ransom was paid by the ship’s owner as well as groups contracted to negotiate with the pirates, Taiwanese media reported.
