Somalia: Pirates holding Danish ship want $1,5m

(SomaliNet) A Kenyan maritime official said on Saturday Pirates holding a Danish freighter off the Somali coast are demanding a $1,5-million ransom for the release of the ship and its crew.

According to reports, the Danica White with five crew members was hijacked on June 2, about 240 nautical miles off the Somali coast while heading to Kenya\'s Mombasa port to deliver about 1 000 tons of construction material.

\"We were informed yesterday that the pirates are demanding $1,5-million (about R14-million) in order to release the vessel,\" said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan branch of the Seafarers\' Assistance Programme.

Three other vessels - one from Taiwan and two from South Korea - are also currently held by pirates off the coast of war-torn Somalia.

Recently, a Panama-flagged cargo vessel was reported to have gone missing in Somali waters.

The International Maritime Bureau said this year had seen at least seven pirate attacks off Somalia\'s 3 700km 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. - Sapa-AFP