Hijacked cargo headed to Sudan

2008-09-29 16:13

Mogadishu - A weapons shipment on a Ukrainian ship hijacked by Somali pirates was headed to unknown buyers in Sudan and not to Kenya, which had claimed to be the arms' destination, a US Navy spokesperson said on Monday.

"We are aware that the actual cargo was intended for Sudan, not Kenya," Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a deputy spokesperson for the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain said.

A 5th Fleet statement said the ship was headed for the Kenyan port of Mombassa, but that "additional reports state the cargo was intended for Sudan".

Kenya has said that the shipment, which includes T-72 battle tanks, was headed there, but Kenyan officials on Monday declined to discuss the destination of the weapons.

Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesperson Valentyn Mandriyevsky said the ministry was not participating in the arms trade and didn't know where the cargo was bound. A spokesperson for Ukraine's arms trader, Ukrspetexport, wouldn't make any immediate comment.

The UN has imposed an arms embargo on weapons headed to Sudan's Darfur conflict zone. But the ban does not cover other weapons sales to the Khartoum government or the southern Sudan's autonomous government.

Islamic insurgents

The US fears the armaments onboard the Ukrainian vessel may fall into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked Islamic insurgents who have been fighting the shaky UN-backed Somali transitional government since late 2006.

American intelligence reports said a few days ago that the ultimate destination was Sudan and that Kenya was only the trans-shipment point, said one Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing classified material.

He said the issue had become confusing after Kenyan leaders had publicly referred to the tanks as their own.

Christensen said additional US warships are surrounding the ship and helicopters were flying over the captive vessel, an American navy spokesperson said on Monday.

"The safety of the ship's crew and cargo is a paramount concern to us," Christensen said, saying the new forces were deployed to prevent the weapons from falling "into the wrong hands".

Vigilant watch

"We maintain a vigilant watch over the ship and we will remain on station while negotiations between the pirates and the shipping company are going on," Christensen told The Associated Press.

Pirates seized the Faina's Ukrainian, Russian and Latvian crew off Somalia's lawless coast on Thursday as it headed to Kenya and anchored the vessel off Somalia's coast near the central town of Hobyo.

There have been 24 reported attacks in Somalia this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre. Last year, US naval helicopters fired on a hijacked Japanese tanker carrying 30 000 tons of benzene after they feared that pirates might try to use it as a floating bomb in a Middle Eastern oil port.

Seizing ships has become an important source of income for pirates in Somalia, which is riven between rival clan-based warlords since they overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991.

- AP