Eight Myanmar sailors who were taken hostage by pirates have been released, announced the Myanmar Maritime Workers' Federation (MMWF).

The pirates on the west coast of Africa took them as hostages, and among the eight Myanmar sailors, there were officer-level sailors and one African sailor is among the sailors taken hostages.

After the pirates boarded the ship, they kidnapped some Myanmar officials, eight other people and an African national on the ship. About a month after they were kidnapped, they were returned to Myanmar in a few days following the negotiation between the owner of the ship and the pirates, announced the MMWF. The MMWF didn’t disclose the name of the ship.

The MMWF announced that they are proud and grateful to the ship owner, who fulfilled the request of the pirates, on behalf of the Myanmar seafarers.

At the end of December last year, a Bulgarian ship was hijacked by Somali pirates while sailing in the Arabian Sea near the coast of Yemen.

The hijacked ship left South Korea and docked in Singapore on December 4, before making its last port of call in Gemlik, Turkey.