Somalia arrests 10 Indian sailors

MOGADISHU - Somali authorities have arrested 10 Indian sailors and seized their boat in the capital Mogadishu for ferrying cargo from a port controlled by Islamist insurgents, a local businessman said.

“We hired a boat called the Muskan to take charcoal from Kismayo and Marka but as soon as it reached Mogadishu, government troops captured the 10 Indians and transferred them to prison,” Mohamoud Sahal Wardhore, the businessman who hired the boat, told reporters in Mogadishu late Tuesday.

“We are negotiating with the government in order to release the crew.”

Colonel Abdullahi Hassan Barise, a spokesman for the Somali police force, said the men have been imprisoned while they were being investigated.

The weak Western-backed government is under siege by Islamist groups, which control much of south and central Somalia.