Nairobi: Pirates in Somalia hijacked a cargo ship carrying a load of sugar from India, with dozens of foreign crew members reportedly on board, officials said today.

The attackers seized the ship late yesterday in the waters off the war-battered Capital, Mogadishu, said Paddy Ankunda, a Somalia spokesman for the African Union, which has peacekeepers at the city's port.

A cargo trader who works at the port said that the ship was from South Korea, with 43 foreign crew members on board. The trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ship had been carrying a load of sugar from India. Both spoke over telephone from Mogadishu. Further details were not immediately available.

An international watchdog reported this month that pirate attacks worldwide jumped 14 per cent in the first nine months of 2007, with the biggest increase off the poorly policed waters of Somalia and Nigeria.

Reported attacks in Somalia rose rapidly to 26, up from eight a year earlier, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said through its piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And some of those hijackings have turned deadly.

Somalia has had 16 years of violence and anarchy, and is now led by a government battling to establish authority even in the capital. Its coasts are virtually unpoliced.

Piracy off Somalia increased this year after Ethiopian forces backing Somali Government troops ousted an Islamic militia in December, said Andrew Mwangura, programme coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Programme, which independently monitors piracy in the region.

Source : PTI