Rescue mission under way for sunken cargo vessel

Mogadishu: A cargo ship carrying 20,000 tons of coal sank off the coast of Somalia and a rescue mission was under way to save the crew, officials said yesterday. About 20 crew members are believed to be floating on life rafts since MV Kanaya went down on Wednesday, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme. “They sent out a distress signal before they abandoned the ship,” Mwangura said. There was no evidence that the sinking was due to piracy, which has been a growing problem off Somalia’s 3,000km coastline, the longest in Africa.