NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Somali pirates have released a Togo-flagged vessel that was seized last week, the World Food Programme said Monday.
Pirates on four skiffs seized the 5,000-ton MV Sea Horse on Tuesday.
"We hear from the operators of the ship that it was released on Friday," said Peter Smerdon, spokesman for the World Food Program in Nairobi.
The ship was not under U.N. charter at the time of the hijacking. But it was on its way to Mumbai, India, to inaugurate a new route for the organization to deliver food from India to Mogadishu, Somalia, Smerdon said.
Piracy is rampant in the Gulf of Aden off the coasts of Somalia and Kenya with vessels seized regularly and often released only after a large ransom is paid.
Thank God for this good news! Over the weekend, a Canadian warship helped thwart an attack on a Norwegian tanker, and the Dutch navy arrested 7 pirates and freed 20 Yemeni fishermen who had been held captive. Unfortunately a Belgian ship, the Pompei, was hijacked on Saturday in the Seychelles.
Please continue to pray for the protection and rescue of all the hijacked ships and their crews, and for continued success in thwarting the pirate attacks.
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