UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (UPI) -- The U.N. World Food Program hailed the release of a ship used for food aid that was hijacked in February off the coast of Somalia.
But in a statement issued Monday at its Rome headquarters, the agency warned that such hijackings are making freighters reluctant to carry food aid to the distressed Horn of Africa.
The MV Rozen and its crew of six Kenyans and six Sri Lankans had completed its contract with WFP Feb. 22 when it dropped off 1,800 metric tons of food from Mombasa in Kenya to Bossaso in Somalia when it was hijacked Feb. 25 off the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast of the African country.
"WFP welcomes the release after 40 days of the MV Rozen," said the agency's Somalia Country Director Peter Goossens, thanking elders in Puntland for their mediation efforts in securing the ship's release last week. News of the ship's release was delayed due to security concerns.
"The threat of piracy however is still very much alive in Somali waters," Goossens added, and he urged the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and authorities in Puntland to curtail piracy.
This incident has caused reluctance among shippers to carry cargoes to Somalia, creating delays in delivering much-needed food aid to the country.
In 2005, the MV Semlow, the MV Rozen's sister vessel, was hijacked while carrying WFP food supplies and held for more than 100 days, the WFP said. Another ship contracted by WFP, the MV Miltzow, was hijacked as it was unloading food aid at the Somali port of Merca and held for 33 hours.
