Pirates have released the Italian aframax tanker RBD Anema E Core a week after it was hijacked off Benin.
All the crew on the 109,000-dwt tanker are reported safe and unharmed. The vessel has been ransacked by the pirates and part of the its cargo of diesel oil has been taken.
Italian newspaper La Nazione quotes a cadet on the ship saying that the crew had been held in the mess room with the ship master held on the bridge.