WFP suspends aid shipments to Somalia

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday suspended all shipments of aid to Somalia pending the release of a ship carrying tsunami relief that was hijacked by pirates last week off the Somali coast. "We have suspended all shipments of food aid to Somalia due to the insecurity of Somali waters," the agency said in a statement released in the Kenyan capital.
"The decision will be reviewed depending on the release of the vessel." The WFP supplies some 3,000 tonnes of food for about 275,000 Somalis per month and had about two weeks of stocks currently in the country. If the ship is released quickly there should be "no major interruption of WFP operations," it said.
The suspension of aid came as efforts to win the release of the hijacked ship carrying food tsunami victims Somalia's north-eastern Puntland region continued with no apparent change in demands from pirates who stormed the vessel last Monday.
WFP officials said earlier Monday they were "hopeful" for the release of the ship, its 10-member crew and the 850 tonnes of Japanese- and German-donated rice but had no new information about the status of the negotiations.
"We remain hopeful that things will work out," WFP spokeswoman Rene McGuffin said. "We understand that the crew and the food are still on the ship and they are fine."
She and other WFP officials repeated the WFP's stance that the hijacking contravened international humanitarian law and that the vessel, crew and cargo should be released immediately.
The crew includes a Sri Lankan captain, a Tanzanian engineer and eight Kenyan deckhands, whom the Kenyan government said in a statement released late Monday were "safe and in good health."
Armed men hijacked the St Vincent and the Grenadines-registered MV Semlow last Monday in pirate-infested waters about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north-east of Mogadishu and demanded a half-million-dollar (415,000-euro) ransom for its release the next day.
Thus far both the ship's owners and WFP have refused to pay any ransom.
The rice on board was donated in response to a WFP appeal for assistance for some 28,000 Somalis affected by the December 26, 2004 tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean.
The ship was taken while on its way from Mombasa to Bossaso in Puntland region when it fell foul of the pirates in an area deemed highly unsafe by international maritime agencies.