The Somali pirates who hijacked a Kenyan vessel laden with food aid off the northeastern coast of Somalia over a month ago have agreed to release it with all crew, the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced in Nairobi Saturday.

The WFP said in a statement that those holding the vessel said the ten crew members would be freed including the ship and food in the next three days following the intervention of Kenya's envoy to Somalia Muhammad Abdi Affey, and WFP country director Robert Hauser with support from Somali's Planning Minister Abdirizak Osman.

The crew consists of eight Kenyans, a Tanzanian engineer and a Sri Lankan captain.

"The WFP announced today an agreement with community leaders and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to allow the release of a hijacked ship, its 10-member crew and its cargo of WFP food aid within days," the statement said.

"Elders and community leaders on behalf of hijackers agreed to release the ship completely intact to go to the Somali port of El Maan within the next three days," WFP said.

According to the UN agency, it was agreed that the food consignment would be handed over to the TFG in El Maan to be distributed to communities in central regions of Somalia.

The ship MV Semlow was hijacked on June 27 between Haradhere and Hobyo, some 400 km northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, on its way to the Gulf of Aden port of Bossaso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland.

The vessel had been chartered by the WFP to deliver some 850 tons of rice to survivors of the 26 December Indian Ocean tsunami,which devastated much of Somalia's northeastern coastline.

The captors have since said they took the ship by mistake.Following the hijacking, WFP had temporarily suspended all shipments of humanitarian assistance to Somalia. But the WFP said it managed to send two shipments of food to Somalia in the last week to ensure that its operations in the country would continue and the hungry would not suffer because of the hijacking.

The hijacking was the sixth reported piracy incident in Somali waters since March, including one in early June in which a US naval destroyer intervened to save a vessel under attack.

Source: Xinhua