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Pirates abandon hijacked ship
14/10/2005 12:02 - (SA)
Nairobi - Somali pirates have abandoned a United Nations-chartered food aid vessel they hijacked earlier this week as it was offloading cargo at a port in the south of the lawless country, the shipowner said on Friday.
The pirates left the MV Miltzow just hours after Somalia's transitional prime minister made an urgent plea for foreign warships to patrol the coast and bring an end to a surge in violent attacks on commercial shipping in Somali waters, he said.
It was not clear if the appeal played a role in the release of the Miltzow, which was seized on Wednesday at the port of Merka, about 100km south of Mogadishu, and taken further south to Barawa, the owner said.
"They have released the ship, it is sailing back to offload the remaining cargo at Merka," said Karim Kudradhi of the Mombasa, Kenya-based Motaku Shipping Agencies which owns the St Vincent and Grenadines registered Miltzow.
"The cargo is still intact," he said.
Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers' assistance programme in Mombasa said the pirates abandoned the ship at 02:00 at Barawa.
He said the vessel, its 10-member crew and remaining 450 tons of World Food Programme (WFP) aid were safe and secure after a WFP contractor in Somalia negotiated an end to the hijacking.
A Kenyan maritime official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he believed a ransom had been paid for the release of the ship, the second WFP food aid vessel to have been hijacked in recent months amid a spate of piracy in Somalia waters.
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