CAIRO: The Somali President has promised President Hosni Mubarak to work on the release of the two Egyptian fishing boats captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia earlier this month, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. Mubarak had asked his Somali counterpart Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to intervene, the official news agency MENA reported. Ahmed had met with President Hosni Mubarak during a two day trip to Egypt, and the two leaders had pledged to cooperate in fighting the piracy that has caused increased raids on ships since the beginning of the year. They had agreed on combating the piracy phenomenon, which has become a direct threat to several regional and international interests in the Gulf of Aden region and off the Somali coasts, which constitute important strategic area for international trade, a Foreign Ministry statement read. The families of the kidnapped fishermen have urged the government to act quicker on the issue, as they fear for the hostages safety in light of the enormity of the ransom demand, which the families cannot afford to pay. A Somali interpreter by the name of Abu Ali phoned in on a satellite television program called 90 Minutes saying that the kidnappers were not pirates, but had decided to punish the Egyptian boats for years of unlicensed fishing. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Assistant for the Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs Ahmed Rizq had said that the two boats did not have the required licenses to fish outside Egyptian waters. Rizq also said that the Egyptian ambassador in Somalia Saeed Mursi is coordinating with Somali authorities to free the 28 Egyptians taken hostage by the pirates, who are demanding a $5 million ransom. The two boats, Mumtaz 1 and Ahmed Samara, were seized by pirates April 10 and 12 in the waters off the coast of Somalia. The fishermen onboard are still in captivity. The Somali President told reporters Wednesday while in Cairo that only by training Somali police could the threat of piracy be curbed. The pirates live on land ... and therefore confronting them begins where they live, and that can be achieved through strengthening the abilities of Somalia s police, he said. We advise against resorting to (US military strikes) and rather to focus on finding a comprehensive solution, he added.
