SOMALIA: Hijacked food aid still on ship - official

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 18 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The hijackers of a food aid-laden vessel off the northeastern coast of Somalia in June have not off-loaded any of its cargo as has been reported by various media, a local official told IRIN on Thursday.

"Nothing has been removed from the ship and no food from it has been to our markets," Muhammad Shaykh, the district commissioner of the central Somalian town of Haradhere, said.

He was reacting to media reports that the hijackers had off-loaded some of the food aid from the ship and were selling it in markets in and around Haradhere, where the ship is anchored.

Muhammad said the seas around Haradhere were "rough at this time of year and no one can off-load anything".

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was attempting to verify the conflicting reports about the ship and its cargo.

"We are still checking, but if is true that it's not being off-loaded, WFP welcomes it," Peter Smerdon, a senior WFP spokesman in Nairobi, Kenya, told IRIN on Thursday. "We are, however, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the ship, its crew and cargo."

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

The vessel had been chartered by WFP to deliver some 850 tonnes of rice to survivors of the 26 December Indian Ocean tsunami, which devastated much of Somalia's northeastern coastline.

A spokesman for the hijackers said in June that central Somalia's South Mudug region - where Haradhere is located - had been "neglected" by aid agencies, "even though it was affected by the tsunami".

[ENDS]