News - Yemen: Officials in Fisheries of the Red Sea and Fishermen Support Committee announced that they received three fishermen who were kidnapped by Eritrean pirates.

The deputy of the Fisheries, Muhammad Al-Omeisy, and the Director General of Ports and Fish Landing Centers in the Authority, Aziz Al-Atini, explained that the returning fishermen were hosted and transported to their villages and families.

They denounced the kidnappings and psychological and physical torture of the three evil Saudi-Emirati-Eritrean pirates in the Red Sea.
Al-Omeisy and Al-Atini held the United Nations responsible for silence regarding the crimes and violations that fishermen are subjected to by the coalition forces and their tools.

While the released fishermen talked about their raid and kidnapping, along with the rest of the nine fishermen, in the course of international waters, five days before a military “Barracuda” boat “raising the flag of the UAE and surmounted by Eritrean pirates.” They reported that they were detained with the rest of the boat's crew for three days on the island of "Dabi'a", which belongs to the State of Eritrea, and then they were transferred to the "Fatima" marina, for two days, to force them to work.
The released fishermen indicated that they were dispensed with and re-deported to Yemen. Because of their disability and their inability to work, pointing out that Akram Rajhi, 18 years old, and Muhammad Obadi, 30, suffer from chronic diseases, while the third, Ali Daabush, 60 years old, is blind, deaf and dumb.

 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.

 Since late 2014, the Eritrean Navy has escalated piracy, detention and arrest operations against many Yemeni fishermen while they are engaged in their activities off the Hanish Archipelago. The archipelago includes the Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands and Jabal Zuqar, and is administratively affiliated to the Al-Hodeidah Governorate in western Yemen.

 Fishing activity in the Red Sea has become a threat to the lives and safety of Yemeni fishermen. While a war is taking place throughout the Yemeni geography, another is taking place in the islands, coasts and international waters, the aggressors of which is the Eritrean maritime authorities and whose victims are thousands of Yemeni fishermen.

 On the shores of Hodeidah, located on the Red Sea, extending from the port of Hodeidah to Bab al-Mandab, thousands of fishermen are being chased by the maritime authorities of the coastal African country. Fishermen accused the navy of imprisoning them for long periods, in addition to the harsh treatment they receive in prisons and the confiscation of their fishing boats.

 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.fishermen and the fish sector in Yemen.

Yemen Aggression Eritrea