Somali pirates seize cargo vessel: owner

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

NAIROBI (AFP) — Somali pirates have hijacked a Panama-flagged cargo freighter off Somalia as it was sailing to the Romanian port of Constanza, its owner and a Kenyan maritime official said Monday.

"A ship owned by Dutch Reider Shipping was boarded off the coast of Somalia by pirates... The ship was hijacked in international waters in the Gulf of Aden," the owners said in a statement sent to AFP in Nairobi.

"The crew members are four Russian officers and five Filipino seamen. All relatives of the crew members have been informed and have been offered every support available.

"The ship owners stress that its first and foremost priority is the security of the crew members," the statement added.

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