Hijacked ship released

The hijackers of a ship transporting food aid for survivors of the December tsunami in northeastern Somalia released the vessel on Sunday, leaving it to proceed to El Maan port, north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, sources said.

"The ship has been free since yesterday and it's on its way to Mogadishu to offload its cargo," Inayet Kudrati, director of the Motaku Shipping Agency, which runs the ship, told IRIN on Monday.

The hijackers left the vessel on Sunday afternoon, nearly 100 days after they commandeered it.

"The hijackers have disembarked from the ship, and security officials from El Maan Port are now on board," Kudrati said from his headquarters in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.

The MV Semlow - with its crew of 10 Kenyan, Tanzanian and Sri-Lankan nationals - was commandeered on 27 June between Haradhere and Hobyo, some 400 km northeast of Mogadishu. It was en route from Mombasa to the Gulf of Aden port of Bossaso, situated in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland.

Chartered by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the ship was carrying 850 tonnes of rice intended for people facing food shortages after their homes and livelihoods were destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

An agreement to end the crisis was reached on the 20 September following negotiations with representatives of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, (TFG) and the El Maan Port Authority.

However, on 21 September, the hijackers issued fresh ransom demands, whereupon the port authority served them with an ultimatum to leave the vessel and allow offloading of the cargo by 22 September.

The deadline passed without a response from the hijackers, and the ship left El Maan and headed back to Haradhere.

Earlier efforts by community leaders, representatives of the TFG and the WFP to reach an agreement to allow the release of the ship were fruitless.

This was the first time in WFP's history that a ship carrying relief food had been hijacked, the agency said.

The ship's crew was reportedly in "good health and good spirits" Kudrati said. He denied reports that the owners had paid a ransom. "We have not paid any ransom at all," he said.