Kenya: Korean firefighter feared kidnapped

(SomaliNet) A North Korean-flagged freighter has gone missing off the Horn of Africa coastline after last being spotted seven weeks ago, a Kenyan maritime official said on Friday.

The MV Sea Prince was last seen loading cargo in Djibouti port in May, Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan branch of the Seafarers\' Assistance Programme, said.

\"On May 11, it was spotted loading 2400 tonnes of cereals in Djibouti port and was headed to the Somali ports of Berbera and Bosasso. Since then, it has gone missing and we have not heard any word from the captain or the owners,\" Mwangura told AFP.

\"Efforts to contact its managers in Ukraine have been unsuccessful,\" he added.

Mwangura said information on the missing freighter had been handed over to the US Navy patrolling the Horn of Africa, diplomatic missions in Nairobi and the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre.

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.

The International Maritime Bureau, based in Malaysia, has reported at least seven pirate attacks in 2007 off Somalia\'s 3700 kilometres (2300 miles) of unpatrolled coastline.

Pirate attacks stopped in the second half of 2006 during six months of strict rule by Islamists, who were ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government troops at the end of the year.

Somalia, which lies in a strategic position at the mouth of the Red Sea, has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle. – AFP