Mogadishu - A Ukrainian freighter carrying an arms shipment seized by Somali pirates was headed Saturday for the central coastal city of Harardhere in an Islamist-controlled region, local officials said.
Somali pirates demanded a $35-million (about R280-million) ransom on Saturday for a Ukrainian ship they had seized which was carrying 33 tanks and other military supplies to Kenya, a maritime official said.
"The gunmen are demanding $35-million to release the MV Faina and her crew," said Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, Reuters reports.
"The pirates are heading towards (the port of) Hobyo and Haradhere and it seems that they are looking for chances to unload any light military supplies on board the ship," said Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, an advisor to presidency of the semi-autonomous Puntland region in northeast Somalia.
"We are very much concerned over this incident which stirs insecurity if not stopped," he said when contacted by phone from Mogadishu.
"We are getting information that the pirates are getting ready" to respond if attacked, he added. "They deployed more armed men into the waters."
The Faina, with a crew of 21, including three Russians, was hijacked on Thursday as it neared the Kenyan port of Mombasa with a cargo of T-72 battle tanks, grenade launchers, ammunition and spares for the Kenyan military, they said.
The Russian navy has sent the frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless) to the region in response to "the rise in pirate attacks, including against Russian citizens," Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said Friday.
Haradhere, about 410 kilometres north of Mogadishu, and Hobyo, about 120 kilometres north of Haradhere, are located in an area controlled by Somalia's Islamist movement, which launched an insurgency against the Somali government in early 2007.
Several residents of Haradhere interviewed by AFP said boats of pirates were seen early Saturday heading for Hoboyo.
"I saw heavily armed pirates on board several speedboats heading towards Hoboyo where the hijacked ship is believed to be coming," said Adan Nile, a local fisherman.
A Somali security officer in Bosasso, the economic capital of Puntland, said the pirates were originally from Hobyo "and those areas are Islamist-dominated areas so it's a worrisome incident," he said on condition of anonymity.
The region is not a typical destination for Somali pirates, who usually take the vessels they seize to the Eyl region, further north about 800 kilometres from Mogadishu.
In Kiev, Ukrainian Defence Minister Yury Yekhanurov said the Faina was carrying 33 T-72 tanks, grenade-launchers and ammunition.
Lawmaker Valery Konovalyuk, head of a parliamentary committee that oversees Ukraine's arms deals, said the tanks had been sold to Kenya.
The cargo was one of the last shipments under a contract which saw 77 tanks supplied in 2007, he said.
The Soviet-era T-72 was a frontline tank in Warsaw Pact states and is still in service in more than 30 countries. The tanks and other weaponry carried on the Faina would be greatly prized by any of the warlords fighting each other in lawless Somalia.
Meanwhile, another Greek chemical tanker with 19 crew on board has been hijacked by armed Somali pirates in the notorious Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog reported on Saturday.
Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur said the tanker was hijacked on Friday while it was on its way to the Middle East from Europe.
Somalia's coast has become extremely dangerous in recent years due to piracy as the Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre, which touched off a fierce power struggle. - AFP/ Reuters