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MOGADISHU, Somalia ·
A cargo ship
carrying food for
poor Somalis refused
to leave Kenya on
Monday because of
rampant piracy, and
the U.S. Navy warned
vessels to stay
clear of Somalia's
lawless waters where
victims have
included aid workers
and fishermen.
The U.N. World Food
Program has appealed
for international
action to stamp out
Somali pirates
threatening the
delivery of
humanitarian
supplies to the Horn
of Africa country,
which is trying to
recover from the
worst fighting in
more than a decade.
The ship was loaded
with 850 tons of
food, but the
shipping agency
contracted by the
WFP demanded that
the Kenyan
government provide
security for travel
into Somali waters.
On Saturday, pirates
staged a failed
hijack attempt on
another WFP boat,
killing a Somali
guard.
"We need some sort
of security to ply
into Somali waters
... because they
[Somali pirates] are
everywhere. Now they
are ashore, [and]
very far off into
the sea. It is
becoming too much,"
Inayet Kudrati of
the Motaku Shipping
Agency said Monday.
A Kenyan government
spokesman did not
return calls for
comment.
Peter Smerdon,
spokesman for the
WFP, said he had no
comment on the
contractor's
security
arrangements, as
long as they were
acceptable to Somali
and Kenyan
authorities.
Saturday's attack on
the aid ship was the
eighth this year off
Somalia's 1,880-mile
coast, which is near
crucial shipping
routes connecting
the Red Sea with the
Indian Ocean.
Trained in combat
during the anarchy
that has gripped
Somalia since the
1991 ouster of a
dictatorship, the
pirates are heavily
armed and use
speedboats equipped
with satellite
phones and GPS
devices. The bandits
raid both passenger
and cargo vessels
for ransom or loot,
using the money to
buy weapons.
"Although there are
coalition forces
operating in the
area, they cannot be
everywhere
monitoring every
ship that passes the
coast of Somalia,"
the U.S. Navy's
Maritime Liaison
Office in Bahrain
said in a statement.
It urged ships to
stay 200 nautical
miles off Somalia's
coast.
In 2005, two ships
carrying WFP aid
were overwhelmed by
pirates.
The number of
overall reported
at-sea hijackings
off Somalia that
year was 35,
compared with two in
2004, according to
the International
Maritime Bureau.
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