(SomaliNet) A Kenyan maritime official said on Tuesday that a Panama-flagged cargo vessel has gone missing in Somalia's pirate-infested waters. Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan branch of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme said the MV Infinity Marine 1 disappeared some 37 nautical miles off the northeastern village of Ras Hafun in late June. "The last time the ship made contact was on June 26. So far, we do not have any information about the crew," he told AFP. The vessel, sailing from the United Arab Emirates, was carrying general cargo including food stuffs, iron sheet, generators, batteries, white wood and light vehicles.
Four vessels - one from Taiwan, another from Denmark and two from South Korea - are already currently in the hands of pirates off the coast of war-torn Somalia. In June, maritime officials said a North Korean vessel, MV Sea Prince, also went missing in the Horn of Africa waters after after loading cargo in Djibouti port. The International Maritime Bureau said this year had seen at least seven pirate attacks off Somalia's 3 700 kilometres of unpatrolled coastline.