The foreign ministry today confirmed the release of the crew of the Italian ship the “Enrico Ievoli” on the coast of Somalia. Minister for Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi, in Indonesia today on a mission to the Asian capitals, which will also being him to Burma/Myanmar and Brunei, made a press announcement after the Crisis Unit had informed the families of the 6 Italian crew members taken hostage on 27 December when the ship was attacked by pirates off the coast of Oman.
Terzi who, has been following the final phases of the release from Jakarta, expressed his “deep satisfaction with this positive outcome, pursued with determination and the highest professional skill by all the institutional personnel involved, to whom I offer my most heartfelt acknowledgement”. Through the Crisis Unit, the foreign ministry has been maintained continuous contact with the families of the 6 Italians over the past weeks.
The case of the Enrico Ievoli, the minister pointed out, has been the focus of months of diplomacy with the Somali authorities, from which Italy urged a priority commitment to the safety of the Italian nationals concerned.
“This case”, Terzi added, “is further confirmation of the serious security threat that piracy poses, with regard to which Italy is committed to encouraging the international community’s maximum attention and ever-increasing coordination, both bilaterally as well as through multilateral forums, as happened recently in the contexts of the G8 and the NATO-Russian Council where Italy proposed its inclusion on the agenda.