Mogadishu - In a rare land attack, Somali pirates in Puntland have seized food aid trucks and their drivers to obtain the release of detained comrades.
The five trucks were intercepted after delivering food aid for the UN's World Food Programme in the Galkayo area of the semi-autonomous northern Somali state of Puntland, which harbours several major pirate lairs.
They were seized on Thursday on their way back to Berbera, the main port in the neighbouring breakaway state of Somaliland.
"The pirates hijacked five trucks with nine people on board and took them to their base in Garaad," said Abdullahi Mohamed, a security official in Galkayo, speaking by telephone.
"They are demanding the release of their colleagues arrested recently by the Somaliland security forces."
Colonel Dahir Jama, a police officer, said: "We heard pirates took civilians from Somaliland region as hostages and we are still investigating the incident."
The Somaliland authorities have arrested and jailed dozens of pirates from Puntland in the Gulf of Aden recently.
Abdi Jamal, a pirate, said by phone from Garaad: "We are treating the hostages well here in Garaad and our aim is to get our friends in the jails of Somaliland freed.
"We are not demanding anything else. When our friends are free and back home we will free the drivers and the trucks."
Dozens of other trucks transporting food aid in the same region are stranded in Galkayo, their drivers afraid to continue.
"There are many trucks from Somaliland still here in Galkayo, too afraid to return, but we will give them escorts," Jama said. - Sapa-AFP