NAIROBI - Somali pirates have hijacked a Panama-flagged cargo freighter off Somalia as it was sailing to the Romanian port of Constanza, its owner and a Kenyan official said yesterday.

“A ship owned by Dutch Reider Shipping was boarded off the coast of Somalia by pirates... The ship was hijacked in international waters in the Gulf of Aden,” the owners said in a statement.

“The crew members are four Russian officers and five Filipino seamen. All relatives of the crew members have been informed and have been offered every support available.

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