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‘We’re not pirates’, say hijackers who seized Chinese ship off Somali coast

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*The names of the hijackers are pseudonyms on condition of speaking to Al Jazeera.

Mogadishu, Somalia – Liban Hassan* has spent most of his adult life fishing off Somalia’s northeast coast – often finding himself with a net in hand navigating waters near the town of Eyl in Puntland state, where he grew up.

But late last year, the 32-year-old traded a net for a gun when he and a group of other locals seized a Chinese fishing trawler and took its crew hostage off Puntland’s coast.

After a seven-week siege at sea, the ship and hostages were safely released this week.

In a statement about the hijacking, the Chinese embassy in Somalia said it “strongly condemns this vicious action which threatened the safety of the crew and international navigation security”.

But the attack on the ship has also shone a light on growing frustrations among angry young local men in coastal communities who feel that foreign boats are taking what is theirs, and who believe that they are justified in hijacking vessels.

“We are not pirates. We are a community under siege,” Liban insisted, talking to Al Jazeera by phone from the seized boat in December. He said fishing, which is his community’s way of life, is increasingly “under attack” by foreign ships.

Some community members in the coastal towns of semi-autonomous Puntland agree. However, others acknowledged to Al Jazeera that even though they are unhappy about foreign ships fishing in their waters, acts of piracy are not the solution.

“The trawlers come here and take everything from our seas. Fish, lobsters, nothing is spared,” Liban told Al Jazeera, saying the ships are visible from the shores of Eyl, while locals are forced to watch in anger as their oceans are polluted and stocks are depleted.

“When we go out at sea, they shoot at us, destroy our boats and prevent us from feeding our families,” he claimed, speaking about foreign trawlers in general.

Illegal fishing has been an issue in Somalia since the collapse of the central government in 1991. As the government ceased to exist, so did the mechanisms to safeguard Somalia’s territorial waters and maritime resources. Foreign ships arrived — as did Somali pirates who targeted them.

By the early 2010s, Somali piracy had declined. A main reason for this was the entry of international navies sent into Somali waters to combat piracy, including the European Union’s Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Operation Atalanta, which began its deployment to Somali waters in 2008.

As a result, Somali waters have become safer for commercial ships; but with the decline of piracy, Liban and others say the surge in foreign ships has led to overfishing and rising coastal pollution.

For weeks in November, Liban said public anger was growing in the coastal areas of Puntland state over the trawlers. From the towns of Garacad to Aluula, both fishermen and traditional elders alike spoke out against it as tension boiled over.

“That’s when we struck,” Liban told Al Jazeera.

Before boarding and seizing the Chinese vessel in the early hours of November 25, Liban said they “watched the ship routinely”, declining to provide details about how exactly their surveillance was conducted. The trawler would fish close to the shores, making it easy to watch the crew, he explained.

“They were 2 miles [3.2km] off the coast near Garmaal and they shouldn’t ever have been there … but it’s not the first time that these Chinese trawlers got so close to our shore. This made it easy for the ship to fall in our hands,” Liban said.

Somali law prohibits trawlers from being less than 24 nautical miles (44.5km) from the shore – both on a state and federal level – with only coastal fishermen allowed in the area.

But global security firm EOS Risk Group cited the Puntland Maritime Police Force as saying the ship had been hijacked “near the Garmaal Area within Somali territorial waters” and a report from EUNAVFOR Atalanta also said it was taken in the “vicinity of Garmaal”.

“At 3am [on November 25] is when we boarded the trawler,” Liban said. “As soon as we stepped foot on the ship, our guns were already drawn.”

He said there were two armed Somali guards on board but neither resisted. “Once they realised we outnumbered and outgunned them, they laid down their arms and surrendered.”

Abdifatah Bashir*, 36, another hijacker who was on board the Chinese trawler, told Al Jazeera by phone from the ship that after the Somali guards were disarmed, the group “seized three AK-47s and three black [bulletproof] vests”.

“That’s when we secured the ship and rounded up the crew. We counted 18 crew members, then ordered the captain to steer the ship.”

Al Jazeera contacted the Puntland Maritime Police Force for comment on how Somali guards ended up doing security for the fishing trawler in waters that fall under their jurisdiction, but they did not respond.

Hijack, ransom, release

On December 5, EUNAVFOR Atalanta, which oversees anti-piracy operations in Somali territorial waters, released a statement confirming that a Chinese fishing boat had been hijacked off the coast of Puntland by individuals “carrying AK-47s and machineguns”.

In an email to Al Jazeera during the siege, EUNAVFOR Atalanta said it had “established communications with the appropriate Somali and Chinese authorities, as well as the Chinese navy” and had “been monitoring the situation of the Chinese fishing vessel from the beginning”.

Both Liban and Abdifatah told Al Jazeera the Chinese trawler crew were safe, unharmed and were “watched over” while they were in control of the vessel. The EUNAVFOR Atalanta statement also said “the crew remains safe with no injuries”. China has not commented on the condition of the crew.

Attempting to elude the authorities, Liban and the other men sailed up and down the coast. They initially had the hijacked ship in Jifle near the coastal district of Godob Jiran, then by Murcanyo, situated close to Eyl. The boat eventually made its way to the coastal village of Falfalah, not far from the district of Dangoroyo.

Liban told Al Jazeera that in the initial days after they took the ship, they received calls from elders on land on behalf of local businessmen about releasing the Chinese trawler and its crew for a ransom, but for weeks the hijackers refused the payment, saying the offer did not “satisfy them”.

Then on January 8, the Chinese ambassador to Somalia, Wang Yu, met Said Abdullahi Deni, the president of Puntland state. At the same time, negotiations were taking place with the hijackers through third parties, including local clan elders, sources close to the talks told Al Jazeera. Finally, an agreement to release the vessel and crew was reached in the village of Falfalah, they said.

Al Jazeera sent multiple emails to the Chinese embassy in Somalia, text messaged the ambassador, and attempted to call the ship’s owners, Liaoning Daping Fishery Group, to comment on specific conditions of release, but our requests went unanswered.

On Monday, January 13, the trawler was released and the full crew of 18 was set free, the Chinese embassy in Somalia said in a statement. Local sources told Al Jazeera the hijackers departed and went their separate ways.

‘Our resources are under attack’

When Liban spoke to Al Jazeera last month, he would not disclose the number of hijackers that took part in the seizure of the ship but did share that those involved ranged from students in their teens to fishermen and men in their 40s.

“The hijackers are youth and are known to the community,” Mohamud Khalid Hassan, a town elder in Eyl, told Al Jazeera at the time.

Some locals said the hijack showed the depth of the community’s resentment towards foreign trawlers.

Speaking from the vessel, Liban spoke of how foreign ships regularly dump rubbish and how overfishing by trawlers has caused a scarcity of stocks, forcing locals to move further out into dangerous sea waters for sustenance.

“What it would take 100 fishermen to capture in six months, [trawlers] can catch in a single day and we’ve seen it with our own eyes,” Liban said.

Others from Eyl share similar concerns over the illegal fishing from the trawlers, which they say also poses a danger to the physical safety of local fishers.

“When we stand on the shores [of Eyl] at night, we see lights everywhere, even though darkness is all around us, the sea is shining and you’d assume you are in Mogadishu with all these bright lights but you’re not and these lights are from the trawlers pillaging our sea,” said Mohamud, the elder.

“Even when we try to sleep our people and resources are under attack.”

Mohamud said when the local fishers go out to sea, “they risk getting shot”. And the risks extend to the shore as well, with people often waking up to find their boats riddled with bullets or destroyed.

“They [trawlers] get so close to shore when they’re looting fish and they’re armed. All we can do is stand on shore and watch as it happens. We are powerless.”

‘Unite against’ armed pirates

But not all locals in the coastal areas agree with the methods of the hijackers, even though they share worries about foreign trawlers in Somali waters.

Some see the violent approach the pirates have adopted as being a far greater threat than the illegal fishing vessels.

“It’s a tragedy when a nation [Somalia] is having its resources looted by outsiders, but the pirates are more detrimental to our society,” Garad Jama Isse, a tribal chief from the coastal town of Garacad in Puntland, told Al Jazeera.

He admitted that for the past two years, they have had difficulties catching fish and their catches have dropped significantly, which he attributes to illegal fishing.

“We released a Baaq [declaration] demanding that trawlers leave our waters,” he said, but they are being protected by armed guards.

Still, he believes the pirates are exploiting public sentiment for personal gain.

“The armed pirates at sea are no different than the militias on land,” Jama Isse said, referring to the armed militia groups wreaking havoc in different parts of the county, urging people to “unite against them”.

“They mislead the youth and send them out to sea, and those youth meet a sad fate while out at sea. Many youth end up dying at sea or get imprisoned in a foreign land like Seychelles, Kenya or India with false promises of becoming rich.”

“The pirates are not defending the seas. They are crooks exploiting local sentiments to justify their actions and enrich themselves.”

Jama Isse also worries about the erosion of the social fabric of the deeply conservative Muslim society, as a result of the piracy.

“When they get money, alcohol floods in – as well as weapons and it has a devastating impact. It’s the youth that suffer the most.”

“The extortion [ransom] they receive for releasing the ships causes vices to be spread on land. As a community, we are against that, which is why I say the pirates are worse.”

In 2009, during the height of Somali piracy, local religious scholars and sheikhs began speaking out against the pirates who they accused of spreading vices and corrupting the society due to acts that they deemed as an affront to their Islamic beliefs – including the consumption of alcohol, prostitution, and armed violence.

“If the people don’t unite against them, the pirates will become even more powerful – like the armed groups at war with the Somali government,” Jama Isse said.

However, for some – like the group that seized the Chinese trawler – taking up arms is the only way they feel they can fight back against fishing that is threatening their livelihoods.

‘Prisoner in your own home’

The vessel that was hijacked, FV LIAO DONG YU 578, is part of a fleet of Chinese trawlers called Lia Dong Yu and operated by a Chinese company based in Danadong, China called the Liaoning Daping Fishery Group.

Some media reports suggested that the Chinese trawler was licensed to be in Somali waters. Speaking to The Associated Press last month, a local businessman familiar with the hijacking incident, told the news agency on condition of anonymity that it was “one of 10 vessels licensed by the Puntland administration to operate in Somali waters, with its licence valid for the past three years”.

But even if it was licensed, Somali law still prohibits trawlers from being less than 24 nautical miles (44.5km) from the shore.

A 2021 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said the Lia Dong Yu vessels have operated and fished within the zone reserved for local Somali fishermen. China and the Liaoning Daping Fishery Group did not respond to that report.

Al Jazeera asked the Chinese embassy in Somalia and Ambassador Wang for comment on the allegations surrounding Chinese trawlers entering Somali waters, but they did not respond.

Mohamud, the town elder from Eyl, feels the foreign trawlers do not only cause problems for Puntland but Somalia as a whole, because of what he called the “real pirates” that work with them – referring to individuals like government ministers or parliamentarians who “give out illegal licences for these trawlers to be here”, he said.

Mohamud suggested that powerful local syndicates give out illegitimate licences to foreign trawlers to be in Somali waters, but because these deals are often struck behind closed doors, transparency and oversight are non-existent.

Al Jazeera reached out by email and text message to Puntland’s Ministry of Information and the official spokesperson for the Puntland president for comment, but they did not respond despite multiple attempts.

“The [Chinese] trawler being held hostage is not new to the area and has been operating in our waters for a while,” Mohamud said. “They [the crew that was hijacked] know what they’re doing is illegal.”

What about Liban? How do the hijackers justify their illegal actions?

“We come from different backgrounds but have one thing in common: We depend on the seas for our livelihoods and these foreign trawlers have prevented us from feeding our families,” Liban said, speaking of his team.

“We can’t live like this,” the fisherman-turned-pirate added. “It’s like being a prisoner in your own home.”

The post ‘We’re not pirates’, say hijackers who seized Chinese ship off Somali coast appeared first on Al Jazeera.

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