Pirates Hijack Food Aid Ship Off Somali Coast

A cargo ship deliver food supplied by the UN has been hijacked by pirates off the cost of Somalia.

Pirates hijacked a cargo ship that was en route to northeastern Somalia delivering food aid from the United Nations. Since 2005, this is the third time a UN ship has been hijacked off of Somalia's dangerous coast. The ship, MV Rozen, had just dropped off more than 1,800 tons of food aid in the semiautonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia when the pirates struck, said Stephanie Savariaud, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Program. It was not immediately known if any of the 12 crew members aboard — six from Sri Lanka and six from Kenya — were injured in the attack. "We know it has been hijacked by pirates but we do not know how many pirates there are," Savariaud said. "We are very concerned about the safety of the crew." The same ship was attacked last year by five pirates armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but that time, the Rozen was able to outrun them. "The pirates have not made any demands yet," said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. One million people are suffering from a drought that hit northeastern Somalia last year. The UN has looking into finding alternative transport routes to Somalia, but routes over land are also plagued by lack of security and lawlessness, and many aid workers have been the targets of kidnappings and killings. The WFP ship is currently being held close to the island of Ras Afun, just off the Puntland coast. The ship has lost contact with its home port of Mombasa in Kenya, said Mwangura. Pirates in Somali are trained fighters and they dress in military fatigues. They used high speed boats that are always equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. The figters usually arm themselves with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades. In 2005, the number of at-sea hijackings that year was 35, compared with two in 2004. The bandits target both passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot, using the money to buy weapons.