Video | Somali pirates free British couple after year-long captivity

Lasting 388 days, the ordeal was complicated by the fact that the couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, couldn’t pay off the ransom and the British government didn’t seem interested to do so either.

The Somali pirates demanding the sort of huge ransom a multimillionaire or a multinational company might cough up.

The release marks and end to one of the longest and most dramatic hostage situations since the Somali piracy boom began several years ago.

The Chandlers release was welcomed by the Somali community close to where they had been held, and later met with the Somali prime minister in Mogadishu.

A private jet then flew them to Nairobi's military airport, where they were whisked away in a British Embassy vehicle.

"We are happy to be alive, happy to be here, desperate to see our family, and so happy to be amongst decent, everyday people, Somalis, people from anywhere in the world who are not criminals, because we've been a year with criminals and that's not a very nice thing to be doing," Rachel Chandler said at a news conference in Mogadishu.

She also said in a BBC interview that their captors beat them during their captivity after deciding to separate the couple.

"We were really distraught, very frightened at that point," Chandler said. "We refused to be separated and we were beaten as a result. And that was very traumatic." When asked about their health, she said "we're OK."

Pirates boarded the Chandlers' yacht the night of 23 October 2009, while the couple were sailing from the Seychelles. Married for almost three decades, the Chandlers had opted for early retirement about four years ago and were spending six-month spells at sea.

Despite an international flotilla of warships and aircraft, pirates continue to prowl the Indian Ocean seemingly at will, pouncing on pleasure craft, fishing vessels and huge cargo ships using small skiffs, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

Somali pirates presently still hold close to 500 hostages and more than 20 vessels, typically only releasing hostages for multimillion-dollar ransoms.

Paul Chandler had been previously identified in the British media as a retired construction site manager, while Rachel has been described as an economist.