Somali pirates who hijacked a United Nations-chartered food aid ship nearly two months ago have begun unloading its cargo for apparent distribution to residents of their home region of Haradere, witnesses said on Wednesday.
The gunmen, who have been demanding the 850 tonnes of German- and Japanese-donated rice intended for Somali tsunami victims in return for the release of the ship, started removing food from the vessel on Monday, they said.
”They have been taking small amounts of food from the ship for the past three days,” said Ahmed Abdi, a clan elder in Haradere, adding that the pirates have informed residents of the town that they have ”permission” to remove the cargo.
He told news agency AFP in Mogadishu by radio that the hijackers are using ”one small boat” to remove the rice but could not estimate how much has been taken or say exactly what will happen to the food, which is being stored in a makeshift warehouse.
However, Abdi said the pirates told residents that at least some of the cargo will be used to repay Haradere shopkeepers from whom they have been ”borrowing” food, water and supplies during the ship’s seven-week captivity.
Another Haradere resident, radio operator Hassan Ibrahim, also said the hijackers are taking food from the MV Semlow, which was seized on June 27 en route from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Bosasso in Somalia’s north-east Puntland region.
”They have started taking the food,” he said. ”I don’t know how much so far, but they say they will take it all.”
The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which had hired the ship to transport the rice, was unable to confirm the removal of its cargo but said it is aware of various reports to that effect and condemned any ”looting” of humanitarian aid.
”If this is true, we condemn it and we urge that the looting of food aid cease immediately,” WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon said in Nairobi.
”We again urge the immediate release of the ship, its crew and what is remaining of the cargo of food aid that was supposed to be given to Somalis in need,” he said. — Sapa-AFP