News - Yemen: The Ministry of Fisheries condemned kidnapping 20 Yemeni fishermen by the Saudi-US aggression and its mercenaries while they were fishing in Yemen territorial waters.

In a statement on Friday, the ministry denounced the crimes committed by the aggression against Yemeni fishermen, the latest of which was the kidnapping of 20 Yemeni fishermen with six boats and a small shellfish off the coast of the Buhais area in the Midi district, and taking them to an unknown destination.

It warned against the continuous piracy in Yemeni waters by the aggression and mercenaries, its persistence and in kidnapping unarmed fishermen and tightening the screws on them during the fishing operation at sea since the beginning of the aggression.

The Ministry of Fisheries holds the US-Saudi aggression to be fully responsible for all the violations and crimes that the fishermen are subjected to, as well as the damage and losses suffered by the fishing sector. 

Saudi Arabia and many of its allies have been waging a war on Yemen since 2015 to restore power to the country’s Riyadh-friendly former officials. The war and a simultaneous siege that the US-Saudi-led coalition has been enforcing on the country has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis.

The invasion has pushed entire Yemen close to the brink of outright famine, turning the country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Coastal communities in Yemen have suffered greatly in the ongoing bloody war. Fishing boats, ports and processing sites have been destroyed or damaged, and many fishermen have lost their lives.

The US-Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes which hit fishing boats and markets, and mines were laid in the sea making the waters treacherous. To make matters worse, the exacerbation of piracy and attacks by the Eritrean authorities and the aggression forces against fishermen on the Yemeni coasts.

As of August 2019, at least 334 fishermen had been reported killed or injured since 2015, according to statistics from Yemen's fisheries authority. Others had been arrested and had their boats seized, while some were now detained in Saudi-run prisons in Yemen.

Local reports estimate that of Yemen's approximate 100,000 fishermen, since 2015 over a third (37,000) have quit and thus lost their income.