SOMALIA: WFP nullifies agreements after hijackers fail to free ship

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

NAIROBI, 23 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) nullified on Friday all agreements with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and community leaders aimed at ending the hijacking of a ship carrying food aid after the pirates reneged on a promise to free the vessel and its crew.

"In light of their failure to comply with the deal reached this week and the earlier agreement to end the crisis on 5 August, we have no choice but to declare that from our standpoint, the agreements reached so far are null and void," Leo van der Velden, WFP Somalia Deputy Country Director, said in a statement.

Pirates seized the MV Semlow on 27 June. It was carrying 850 mt of rice meant for people facing food shortages.

It had a crew of 10, most of them Kenyans. It had anchored at the port of El Maan, north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on 19 September.

An agreement to end the crisis was reached on Tuesday evening following negotiations with representatives of the TFG and the El Maan Port Authority.

However, on Wednesday, the hijackers issued fresh ransom demands, whereupon the port authority served them with an ultimatum to leave the vessel and allow off-loading of the cargo by 1300 on Thursday. The deadline passed without a response from the hijackers, and the ship left El Maan, heading in the direction of Mogadishu, some 30 km to the south.

"It is now clear that the hijackers are not demonstrating any meaningful actions towards finding the necessary resolution of this problem," Van der Velden said.

"WFP demands the unconditional release of the vessel, its crew and cargo," he said. "The crew members have suffered long enough and the humanitarian cargo has unlawfully been denied to the people who need it. We call upon the community leaders, politicians and members of civil society in Harardhere, where most of the pirates come from, to intervene to end this ordeal peacefully, and no longer to stand passively by."

WFP also issued a warning to the hijackers not to loot the cargo.

"This is humanitarian relief food which is not for sale under any circumstances. Anyone involved in the buying or selling of this food would be committing a criminal act," Van der Velden said.

The gunmen seized the St Vincent and Grenadines-registered Semlow off Harardhere, some 300 km northeast of Mogadishu, while it was carrying rice donated by Germany and Japan to assist 28,000 Somalis in the Puntland region whose lives were devastated by last December’s tsunami.

WFP has since replaced this food with another shipment.

On 5 August, community leaders and representatives of the TFG, reached an agreement with WFP to allow the release of the ship.

Under the pact, the elders and community leaders, on behalf of the hijackers, had agreed to release the ship and allow it to sail to the port of El Maan. The food was to be handed over to the TFG and the crew and vessel allowed to travel to their base in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.

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

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