Four Indonesian sailors home from Somali pirate ordeal

Four Indonesian seafarers stepped off a flight at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on the evening of October 6, 2026, more than five months after Somali pirates seized their tanker in the Indian Ocean. Captain Ashari Samadikun was among them. He wept as he apologised to waiting officials for not bringing everyone home.

Five crew members did not make it. The pirates killed three Pakistani sailors, one Indian national, and one man from Myanmar before or during the Puntland Maritime Police Force's rescue operation, which took place around October 1. Of the 17 crew rescued alive from the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25, four held Indonesian nationality and returned to Jakarta together. Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir and Coordinating Minister Sugiono received them at the airport.

The MT Honour 25 had been taken in April 2026 in what turned into one of the longest hostage situations in the current wave of Somali piracy. At least 15 attacks have been reported off the Horn of Africa since April, the highest rate in a single six-month stretch since 2013. The same Puntland Maritime Police Force freed the US-sanctioned tanker Sibu 1 from Somali pirates after a 35-day hijacking, and separately Iraqi tribesmen from the Al-Shaghanba clan freed a hijacked tanker from Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden in late September.

Indonesia's foreign ministry said consular staff supported the crew throughout the ordeal. No statement on compensation or legal action against the tanker's operator had been released by the time the four men arrived home.