Eritrea Persists in Kidnapping and Detaining Yemeni Fishermen

Seventy-three fishermen released from detention by Eritrean authorities arrived Wednesday in  Al-Khawkhah city of  Hodeida province, local sources said. Forty-four other fishermen remain in custody.

Over the past week, the Eritrean coastal forces kidnapped 117 Yemeni fishermen while fishing in regional waters in the Red Sea amidst continued Eritrean attacks on Yemeni fishermen. Mohammed Saeed, a fisherman from Hodeida, told local media that the Eritrean authorities kidnapped the Yemeni fishermen and kept them in custody for days on Tarma island. Saeed indicated that the coastal forces have lately deployed boats carrying heavily armed soldiers.

He added that these boats continue to break into the territorial waters of Yemen at a distance of 12 miles, exposing the Yemeni fishermen to kidnapping and detention and confiscating fishing equipment.

The head of the Al-Khokha Fishermen Association, Khaled Al-Zarnouki, confirmed that those fishermen who arrived Wednesday in Hodeida were detained in Terma island, saying to local media that 44 fishermen are still detained in the island as the Eritrean authorities have refused to release them until now.

The Yemeni General Authority for Fisheries in the Red Sea in June this year that the number of fishermen kidnapped in 2021 reached 882 fishermen. In 2022, 750 fishermen were abducted. Since 2015, Eriteria has committed 7000 kidnapping crimes against Yemeni fishermen. 

The kidnapped fishermen are exposed to physical and psychological torture in prisons as the kidnappers take advantage of the civil war Yemen has been witnessing.