Somali gunmen who hijacked a U.N. chartered vessel with a 10-man crew carrying relief food to tsunami victims have released the ship after nearly 11 weeks, officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Somali pirates hijacked the Kenyan MV Semlow ship on June 27 near Harardheere area, 300 km (190 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu on its way to Bosasso port with 850 tonnes of rice donated by Germany and Japan. "The vessel has sailed from where she was and she is proceeding to Elmaan, with passengers on board," Inayet Kudrati, a director of Mombasa-based Motaku Shipping Agency said. Omar Osman, a Somali gunman accompanying the vessel told Reuters from an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean that the ship had set off late on Wednesday. "We are now 30 miles from Harardheere," said Osman, an ally of Mohamed Abdi Hassan, the leader of the Somali pirates who hijacked the ship. A spokeswoman of the U.N. World Food Programme said the WFP had negotiated with Elmaan port authorities -- through the Somali's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) -- to facilitate and guarantee the free passage of food to the central region. --More 2232 Local Time 1932 GMT
