Somali Pirates Release World Food Program ship?

According to this, the long ordeal of the M/V Semlow, a World Food Program ships seized off Somalia on June 27 is over and the ship is heading to a safe port.

The ship, which was anchored off the central Somalia town of Haradheere's coast, was released Wednesday, said Rene McGuffin of the World Food Program.

"The vessel is moving towards the port of Elmaan, north of (the Somali capital) Mogadishu. It will arrive there in three to five days," McGuffin said.

Mohamed Ali Americo, an aide to Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, confirmed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that the ship had left central Somalia, but said he did not have any other details.

McGuffin said the cargo - 850 tonnes of rice donated by Japan and Germany for Somalia's 28,000 tsunami victims - will be given to the transitional government in Somalia when the ship arrives in Elmaan.

On June 27, Somali gunmen boarded the MV Semlow, registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and they had kept it near Haradheere ever since.