By Jeremy Clarke
Sunday, April 08, 2007
NAIROBI (Reuters) - An Indian merchant dhow seized and then released by Somali pirates docked in Mogadishu on Sunday, following a week in which two other Indian vessels were also attacked, a maritime group said.
Freed by the pirates on Friday, the ship Nimatullah, carrying 800 tonnes of clothes, food, cosmetics and other items, was due to offload its cargo and return to Dubai in two days.
Pirates seized the ship off Mogadishu a week ago and held its 14 crew hostage, demanding $20,000-$50,000 in ransom, said Andrew Mwangura, director of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
The Nimatullah and the Rozen, a ship chartered by the World Food Programme seized in February, were both released late on Thursday from where they had been held, 3 km (1.5 miles) from the fishing village Dhighiley in the northern Puntland region.
The Rozen is due back in its home port of Mombasa later this week, Mwangura said.
Two other Indian vessels were attacked this week in the latest upsurge of piracy on the Somali coast, Africa's longest and one of the world's most dangerous for merchant shippers, Mwangura said.
Gunmen on speedboats opened fire on Thursday on the ship Sahiba near the Somali port of Kismayo, but the Indian dhow escaped after the pirates experienced engine failure.
Another Indian-registered vessel, the Nishan, was anchored off the Somali capital Mogadishu on Tuesday when armed pirates appeared, but port authority guards in speedboats chased them away.
Somalia's coastline has remained dangerous in the absence of a central government, which has not existed in the east African state since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Somali Islamists, ousted from power over the New Year by Somali government troops with Ethiopian backing, vowed to crack down on piracy as an affront to Islamic law, and did so.
But a United Nations report last year said they only acted after pirates stole a cargo of their weapons.
Source: Reuters, April 08, 2007