UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The U.N. World Food Program is concerned about 12 crewmen aboard its hijacked ship returning to Kenya from a food and equipment delivery to Somalia.
The Rozen was seized over the weekend by pirates after delivering WFP food and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization equipment in Berbera and in Bossaso in Puntland and was sailing empty back to Mombasa, Kenya, from where it was chartered when it was hijacked, the WFP said Monday. It was last reported anchored off Bargal, in Somali waters. It was the fourth such attack on a U.N. supply vessel off the East African country in less than two years.
The WFP "is highly concerned about the safety of crew members and the vessel," Peter Goossens, the agency's Country Director for Somalia said in Mombasa. "Such acts of piracy might undermine the delivery of relief food to vulnerable people in Somalia and could further worsen the prevailing precarious humanitarian situation."
WFP is currently in close contact with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, the authorities in Puntland in the north of the country and with the vessel's agents, to obtain the most accurate information and to ensure the earliest release of the vessel and crew - six Sri Lankans, including the captain, and six Kenyans.
There were reports a U.S. naval vessel was closing in on the Rozen, but it could not be immediately confirmed.
