Liban Hassan, a 32-year-old fisherman from the coastal town of Eyl in Puntland, Somalia, has spent the majority of his life fishing the waters off Somalia’s northeastern coast. But in late 2023, Hassan and a group of local men abandoned their fishing nets for guns, hijacking a Chinese fishing trawler off Puntland’s coast in protest of what they describe as the exploitation of their seas by foreign vessels.
The hijacking resulted in a seven-week-long standoff at sea, with the crew of the Chinese vessel being taken hostage before their eventual release earlier this week.
In response to the incident, the Chinese embassy in Somalia condemned the hijacking, calling it a “vicious action” that jeopardized the safety of the crew and international navigation security. However, the incident has highlighted increasing frustration among coastal communities in Puntland, particularly among young fishermen who feel their livelihoods are being threatened by foreign ships engaging in illegal fishing practices in Somali waters.
“We are not pirates. We are a community under siege,” said Hassan during a phone call with Al Jazeera from the hijacked vessel in December. He emphasized that fishing is the lifeblood of his community, and foreign fishing trawlers are depriving them of their resources. “These ships are taking everything from our seas — fish, lobsters, nothing is spared,” he claimed. “When we go out at sea, they shoot at us, destroy our boats, and prevent us from feeding our families.”
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has been a persistent issue in Somalia ever since the collapse of the central government in 1991, which left the country’s maritime resources unprotected. While piracy emerged in response to the influx of foreign ships, piracy levels have dropped significantly since the early 2010s, following international naval interventions such as the European Union’s Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Operation Atalanta. However, with the decline in piracy, foreign trawlers have increasingly flooded Somali waters, exacerbating overfishing and coastal pollution.

Liban and others in Puntland are particularly angry about Chinese fishing trawlers that operate near the coast. He says that these trawlers have repeatedly ventured close to shore, taking advantage of Somalia’s weak enforcement of maritime regulations. “The Chinese ships are often only a few miles offshore, and they shouldn’t be there,” Hassan said. “This made it easy for us to take the ship.”
The hijacking of the Chinese trawler on November 25 was a direct response to the growing anger over foreign fishing activities, particularly in towns like Garacad and Aluula, where both fishermen and local elders had voiced their discontent. Hassan explained that they had been monitoring the ship’s movements before seizing it. “We watched them for a while, and when the time was right, we struck,” he said.
As the Somali government grapples with internal instability, illegal fishing remains a contentious issue for the country’s coastal communities. Liban and his peers contend that the rise in foreign vessels is further depleting their resources and polluting their waters, leaving them with little to survive on. While the hijacking of the Chinese trawler has made international headlines, many locals in Puntland view it as a desperate attempt to protect their way of life and reclaim control over their maritime resources.