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Pirates hijack ship off Somalia
03/04/2007 14:06 - (SA)
Nairobi - Somali pirates armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades hijacked a cargo ship as it was preparing to dock at Mogadishu port, officials said on Tuesday.
The vessel, the MV Nimatullah, was delivering 800 metric tons of cargo, when around 10 pirates in a speedboat overpowered 14 crew early on Monday, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.
"The crew told us by telephone that they had been hijacked by Somali pirates," said Hussein Ali Jillow, a Somali businessman who hired the cargo ship.
"The crew did not say anything about their conditions."
No ransom has been demanded, Mwangura added. The ship was carrying various goods, including cooking oil, second-hand clothes and rice.
On February 25, Somali pirates seized a UN-chartered vessel that had just delivered food aid in northeastern Somalia. The ship and the 12 crew are still being held.
The 3 000-km coast of Somalia, which has had no effective government since warlords ousted a dictatorship in 1991 and then turned on each other, has emerged as one of the most dangerous areas for ships.
Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades, according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia.
In 2005, two ships carrying UN World Food Programme aid were overwhelmed by pirates. The number of overall reported at-sea hijackings that year was 35, compared with two in 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
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