Geneva - Somali pirates are in danger of again threatening food supplies for the war-ravaged East African country, the UN food agency warned on Tuesday. "Piracy is a constant concern for the World Food Programme," said spokeswoman Emilia Casella - noting that
90 per cent of the aid to Somalia is delivered by sea.

The Maersk Alabama with its American crew were captured last week

as they were delivering food aid to Africa. More than half of the 200 containers on the ship were destined for the WFP.

Casella said the agency plans to give food to 3.5 million Somalis this year.

Shamsul Bari, the United Nations expert on Somalia, recently said that residents of the east African nation "suffer one of the most precarious existences I have witnessed in my many years of work," highlighting the lack of personal safety and food security.

Somalia has been widely-regarded as a failed state for more than a decade, with warring militias in the capital, Mogadishu, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for aid agencies.

WFP ships or contracted vessels, like the Maersk Alabama, going to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, do not receive a military escort.

This was the first time a Mombasa-bound aid vessel had been captured, raising concerns that the delivery of humanitarian help could be affected.

About 200 ships with food aid arrived at the Kenyan port last year.

Deliveries from Mombasa to Somalia itself, however, are covered by Western warships, a programme seen as vital for the WFP.

"Without these escorts we'd be at risk of not being to bring food to Somalia," Casella said.

Before the escorts began in 2007, several WFP ships were hijacked by pirates. In the summer of 2008 there was a six week period when there were no warships to accompany the humanitarian vessels and all food delivery stopped until Canada arranged for escorts.

Currently, the European Union has taken the responsibility of accompanying the food.

The captain of the Maersk Alabama, Richard Phillips, was freed on Sunday after a five-day standoff with the US Navy. Snipers killed three pirates guarding Phillips on the Alabama's lifeboat. The rest of the crew had regained control over the ship several days earlier.

On Friday, the captain of a French yacht and two pirates died when French naval forces stormed the boat, freeing four hostages.

Almost 20 ships have been attacked in the last three weeks.

In 2008, pirates seized more than 40 vessels in and around the Gulf of Aden and collected tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, prompting the international community to send warships to the region. (dpa)