Somali pirates to release Ukraine ship with arms

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates and owners of a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks and other military hardware have reached a deal to release the vessel, a Kenyan maritime official said Sunday.

Gunmen captured the MV Faina on September 24, with its cargo of T-72 tanks, grenade launchers and ammunition, and demanded $20 million in ransom.

"They have reached a deal but are still discussing the modalities of releasing the ship, crew and cargo," said Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program.

"Talks on how to deliver the money are ongoing. What I hear are that things are good and that the ship should be released."

The 20 crew members aboard include 17 Ukrainians, Russians and Latvians.

A piracy wave in the Gulf of Aden has jacked up shipping insurance costs, sent foreign warships rushing to the area, and left about a dozen vessels with more than 200 hostages still in hijackers' hands.

Taking advantage of chaos on shore, where an Islamist-led insurgency has raged for nearly two years, Somali pirates have made most of their attacks in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and north Somalia, a major global sea artery used by about 20,000 vessels a year heading to and from the Suez Canal.

The gangs seek, and often receive, large ransoms.

In another high profile hijacking, pirates forcibly boarded the Sirius Star on November 15. The Saudi supertanker was loaded with oil worth $100 million and its capture is the biggest in the history of maritime hijacking.

Separately, a senior police officer in Kenya's North Eastern Province told Reuters Sunday he expected two Italian nuns abducted in Kenyan territory near the Somali border three weeks ago would be released Monday or Tuesday.

"The negotiations for their release have not failed. We are happy with the progress and in fact, expect them back early next week," said regional police commander Stephen Chelimo.

MOUNTING CHAOS

Faina's capture in September sparked controversy over the destination of its military cargo.

The East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme's Mwangura and some defense sources said the cargo was on its way to south Sudan when the pirates struck.

Kenya however says the shipment was meant for its use and was not secretly headed for south Sudan, which is under an arms embargo following a 20-year old civil war with the north.

Mwangura was charged in a Kenyan court for allegedly publishing alarming statements over the destination of Faina's cargo.

Somalia has been without effective central government since the 1991 toppling of a military dictator by warlords.

Islamists who have been fighting an interim government and its Ethiopian military allies for two years denounce piracy in public but analysts say some factions are taking a share of spoils and using pirates to enable weapons deliveries by sea.

Analysts also accuse government figures of collaboration with pirates.

In the latest such violence in the anarchic Horn of Africa country, four civilians were killed and 10 injured after a grenade explosion Thursday in Baidoa, the seat of parliament.

(Additional reporting by Noor Ali in Garissa, Kenya; Editing by Louise Ireland)