A contingent of 21 AFM soldiers are back from Somalia where they formed part of an EU-mandated anti-piracy mission.

The contingent worked with Dutch forces on the warship De Zeven Provincien. They performed various boarding missions of suspicious vessels.

The four officers and 17 men were away for 16 weeks and were lucky to escape unharmed when a hand grenade was thrown as a restaurant in Djibouti which they had just left.

This was the longest deployment off the coast of Somalia for AFM soldiers so far.

A number of relatives awaited their arrival this morning and watched on as they were presented the Dutch Medal for Peacekeeping Activities.

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