Somali hijackers of aid ship add ransom demand

NAIROBI - Somali gunmen who hijacked a vessel six weeks ago chartered by the UN's food agency to carry relief aid to tsunami victims have made fresh ransom demands, a director of the ship said.

Under a deal agreed with the hijackers last week, the MV Semlow, its 10-man crew and cargo were to be handed over early this week by the pirates at a Somali port, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.

But Karim Kudrati, a director at Mombasa-based Motaku Shipping Agency, which owns the ship, said the hijackers had made a fresh ransom demand not in last week's agreement.

"They called us yesterday asking for a ransom," Kudrati said. "They said we now have to talk about the ship and the (hostages) ... But I told them I have no money to pay."

He said they did not say how much money they wanted.

Gunmen seized the vessel on June 27 in the most high profile of a sequence of hijackings in recent weeks off lawless Somalia. The international Maritime Bureau classes waters off the Horn of Africa nation as some of the world's most dangerous.

The hijackers initially demanded a US$500,000 ($727,380) ransom for the eight Kenyan crew, Sri Lankan captain and Tanzanian engineer.

They then cut the demand to the cargo of 850 tonnes of rice, donated by Japan and Germany for post-tsunami Somali victims.

WFP had said a deal had been reached on Friday for the safe return of the crew, food and ship within days, on the condition the rice was distributed in central Somalia.

WFP officials were not immediately available for comment.

Somalia has been synonymous with insecurity since warlords overrun it in 1991 after deposing former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Since then hundreds of thousands have died from the conflict.

- REUTERS