KARACHI: The final three Pakistani survivors of an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates will return home on Wednesday, their families and officials said, ending a more than five-month ordeal that left five crew members dead and underscored a resurgence of piracy off Somalia.

The Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 was seized on April 21 off Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region with 17 crew members aboard, including 10 Pakistanis. Puntland forces retook the vessel last week and detained 16 suspected pirates, according to regional authorities.

Five crew members, three Pakistanis, an Indian and a Myanmar national, were killed and four Pakistanis wounded during the operation to recover the vessel, according to Puntland authorities and Pakistan’s Foreign Office.

Four injured Pakistani survivors and the remains of their three compatriots were repatriated to Karachi on Sunday. The remaining Pakistanis, Syed Hussain Yousuf, Imran Ali and Muhammad Yasin, are now in Addis Ababa awaiting their flight home.

“We are in constant contact with them,” Syed Talib, nephew of Yousuf, the vessel’s second engineer, told Arab News on Tuesday. “They are not injured. They are otherwise fine.”

Talib said the three men had traveled through Garowe, the capital of Puntland, before flying to Ethiopia. Yousuf and Ali are from Karachi, while Yasin is from Swat in northwestern Pakistan.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday the sailors had been flown to Addis Ababa accompanied by a team from Pakistan’s embassy in Djibouti and would depart for Karachi on the first available Ethiopian Airlines flight on Wednesday.

The hijacking came amid a renewed threat from piracy and armed robbery in waters around Somalia, the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. The International Maritime Organization said in July it had recorded 24 attempted or actual piracy and armed robbery incidents in the region in the preceding three months, with 44 seafarers then being held captive aboard three vessels, including the Honour 25.

“These incidents are a stark reminder that the threat posed by piracy and armed robbery to seafarers has not receded and continues to warrant vigilance and support for coordinated action,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said at the time.

The Honour 25 was carrying about 18,500 barrels of oil when it was hijacked, according to Puntland authorities.

Qurat Ul Ain, legal adviser to the Ansar Burney Trust, a Pakistani human rights organization involved in the case, said its work to secure the crew’s release and repatriation had concluded.

“Our work is done after all the legal requirements,” she told Arab News. “Three bodies have been buried, four injured crew members are already home and the remaining three will come tomorrow.”

She said the organization had not yet been approached by the sailors or their families over possible compensation or insurance claims.