UN envoy calls on interim gov't to help rescue hijacked ship

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, Francois Lounseny Fall, has appealed to interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi to help secure the release of a food aid-laden ship hijacked off the country's northeastern coast in June.

"This further imposition on the victims of last December's Tsunami has dragged on far too long," he said in a statement on Friday. "Some 30,000 people in Somalia's northeastern coastal communities are dependent on a continuous flow of food assistance."

The MV Semlow, with its crew of eight and its cargo of 850 tonnes of UN World Food Programme (WFP) food aid, was destined for the port of Bossaso in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, where the 26 December 2004 tsunami devastated large swathes of the coastline, destroying the homes and livelihoods of at least 28,000 people in the region.

Fall commended WFP for having overcome the initial interruption in the supply of food aid to tsunami-affected populations as a result of the ship's capture. The statement added that WFP country director for Somalia, Robert Hauser, had said he was "extremely pleased" at Fall's intervention.

The vessel was hijacked on 27 June near the town of Haradhere, South Mudug region. Repeated efforts by Somalia's interim government, diplomats and the WFP to negotiate with the pirates for the release of the ship, its crew and cargo have so far proved fruitless.

Fall had requested Yusuf and Gedi's assistance in August and according to the statement, he contacted the two leaders again last week and informed them that it appeared the pirates were from the Haradhere area.