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Hijacked UN ship still held
04/07/2005 14:31 - (SA)
Nairobi - Efforts to free a hijacked United Nations-chartered ship carrying food aid for tsunami victims in Somalia continued on Monday with no apparent change in demands from pirates who stormed the vessel off the Somali coast last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.
"There are no new developments but we do remain hopeful," said Rene McGuffin, a spokesperson for the WFP which had hired the ship and 10-member crew to deliver 850 tons of Japanese- and German-donated rice to Somalia's northeastern Puntland region.
"We remain hopeful things will work out," she said.
"We're still speaking with local officials and elders and Somali authorities so we are hopeful for a good resolution."
"We understand the crew and the food are still on the ship and they are fine," McGuffin said, repeating the WFP's stance that the hijacking contravened international humanitarian law and the vessel should be released immediately.
Refusing to pay ransom
Armed men hijacked the St Vincent and the Grenadines-registered MV Semlow on Monday in pirate-infested waters about 300km northeast of Mogadishu and demanded a $500 000 ransom for its release the next day.
Thus far both the ship's owners and WFP have refused to pay any ransom.
The rice on board was donated in response to a WFP appeal for assistance for some 28 000 Somalis affected by the December 26 2004 tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean.
The ship was taken while on its way from Mombasa to Bossaso in Puntland region when it fell foul of the pirates in an area deemed highly unsafe by international maritime agencies.
Both the International Maritime Board (IMB), a division of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the United States have in recent months issued increasingly dire alerts about threats to shipping off the Somali coast.
The WFP hijacking was the sixth reported piracy incident in Somali waters since March, including one in early June in which a United States naval destroyer intervened to save a vessel under attack.
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