Yar! We be Rice Pirates! NO, it's not a movie with Robert Urich, ye lubber.NAIROBI, Kenya -- Pirates seized a ship carrying U.N. food aid to tsunami victims in Somalia when it was delivering its cargo, the World Food Program said Thursday. Somali gunmen boarded the MV Semlow, registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on Monday and took the crew of 10 hostage, the statement said. The captain of the vessel is Sri Lankan, the engineer is Tanzanian and the remaining eight crew are Kenyan. The ship was carrying 937 tons of rice donated by Japan and Germany for tsunami victims in Somalia.
Piracy along the Somalia coast is common -- several ships a month are attacked, if not actually hijacked, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom. This is the first time the United Nations has reported a ship hijacked by Somali pirates. World Food Program officials have contacted clan elders to negotiate the release of the ship and its cargo and crew, the statement said.