NICOSIA: Cyprus said on Tuesday that it has detained a cargo ship suspected of trying to deliver weapons to Sudan in contravention of a UN embargo.
The ship was anchored off the southern city of Limassol under police guard with a suspected military cache that would contravene a 2004 UN embargo on arms sales and deliveries to Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said that "pending certification of the legality of the cargo, (the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Santiago ship) is prohibited from leaving."
Katsounotos told reporters the Santiago "appeared to be bound for Sudan and Singapore," according to the ship’s documents.
Cypriot officials probed the ship’s content after US authorities alerted them it was carrying a large amount of explosives bound for Sudan, as well as tanks for Singapore, Phileleftheros newspaper reported.
Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides said the investigation was ongoing and Cyprus was consulting other countries, without specifying.
"The ship is under guard and there are materials that are considered banned, this means either military material or explosives," Paschalides told state radio.
"There is definitely military equipment which comes under a ban," he added without elaborating.
Paschalides said the ship had come from Norway and passed through Germany and Spain.
The ship’s captain had sought permission to refuel in Cyprus on June 11 before authorities went on board.
The captain has since asked to dock at Limassol port until the probe is complete, but this was denied due to the security threat posed by the explosives, said Phileleftheros.
