Somalia pirates have hijacked a St. Vincent and Grenadines flagged cargo ship in the Indian Ocean waters near Seychelles with 23 Chinese crew members aboard, a regional maritime official confirmed Sunday.

Andrew Mwangura, the East African coordinator of Seafarers Assistance program (SAP), said that MV Rak Afrikana was hijacked early Sunday approximately 280 nautical miles west of Seychelles.

"All the crew members in the Rak Afrikana are 23, all Chinese, " Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone from Mombasa.

Earlier, EU Naval Force Commander John Harbour said Rak Afrikana with deadweight of 7,561 tons has currently stopped due to engine problems.

"The cargo vessel is owned by Rak Afrikana Shipping Limited from Seychelles. The nationality of the crew is at this moment unknown," Harbour said.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Africa, especially in the waters near Somalia which has been without an effective government since 1991.

Ransoms started out in the tens of thousands of US dollars and have since climbed into the millions.

The Horn of Africa nation is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping channels.

Somalia has been plagued by factional fighting between warlords and hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world. Every year about 25,000 ships use the channel south of Yemen, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2010)