Pirates seize Indian cargo ship, crew in Somalia

NAIROBI: Pirates have hijacked an Indian cargo ship anchored at Somalia's main port of Mogadishu and taken it northwards up the coast.

The hijackers took control of the MV Nimatullah and its 14 crew members late Sunday. Two days later they began moving the ship, ferrying 800 tonnes of general household goods, heading for the north of the Horn of Africa nation.

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan branch of the Seafarers Assistance Programme said that the identity of the pirates remained unknown, but that they had demanded an unspecified ransom.

"We are informed that the hijackers are demanding a ransom," Mwangura said. "We have sent someone to find the agent of the ship in Mogadishu."

The hijack is the second since Ethiopian troops helped Somali government forces oust an Islamist movement from Mogadishu at the end of December, and comes after days of heavy fighting in the city, sparked by an Ethiopian offensive on Islamist insurgents and clan fighters.

A UN-chartered cargo ship is still being held off northeast Somalia. It was seized in February after delivering food aid to the war-torn nation.

Waters off the unpatrolled 3,700-kilometer Somali coastline saw scores of pirate attacks between March 2005 and June last year, but these stopped during six months of strict Islamist rule of south and central Somalia.

Remnants of the Islamists and clan fighters have been battling government forces and their Ethiopian backers since the start of the year.