Quite often, have I come across reports on the struggle of fishermen in the Redsea area off Yemen’s coast. As always, the corporate media does not report on such pressing issues, which might reveal complicity and incriminate western governments’ role by uncovering their crimes against humanity at every imaginable level. I doubt the British public’s genuine interest in this matter, as indifferent as they are to their own foreign policy exercised abroad. The rest of us are left with no other remedies than perusing the Internet for valuable information. On my latest online research attempts on the plight of Yemeni Fishermen, I discovered this report released by Human Rights Watch in August 2019. This report entails crucial but limited research on this topic. As indicated, this is not an extensive or all-encomprising research work with added methodology, etc. rather, the report renders limited witness statements of victims, survivors, and their families. The evidence gathered spans a very short period of time considering how long the Yemen war has been raging by now. The evidence gathered is limited up to the year 2018, so only the first three years of the devastating Saudi Arabia-led coalition atrocities against Yemeni fishermen and their families are depicted. Even so, the information does not cover the entirety of the first three years, as we know not every crime is being reported or discovered. Much remains in the darkness; only one-thenth of all crime is being reported according to scientific research and studies. In essence, studies do not reflect the true account of phenomena, such as a war. They offer only a peripheral picture as the foundation of further work at best. The following information is based on work carried out by human rights organisations and dependent or independent newspaper agencies.

Saudi-led coalition naval forces have carried out at least five deadly attacks on Yemeni fishing boats since 2018, Human Rights Watch said. Coalition warships and helicopters have been involved in attacks that killed at least 47 Yemeni fishermen, including seven children, and the detention of more than 100 others, some of whom were tortured in custody in Saudi Arabia. Coalition forces carried out the attacks using small arms and heavy weapons. Warships and helicopters were involved in the attacks from short distances away.

“The naval attacks on Yemeni fishing boats make it clear that the Saudi-led coalition is not only killing civilians through countless illegal airstrikes, but also while conducting operations at sea,”

Human Rights Watch

The Cradle Media and SABA news agency cited earlier this year the findings of a Yemen-based human rights organisation. According to the report titled “Unseen Tragedies in the Red Sea,” the Insan Organization’s investigation team claims that Since the start of the Saudi-led war, over 2,000 Yemeni fishermen have been kidnapped by coalition-backed mercenaries. Coalition forces have directly killed 274 fishermen, some of whom were targeted by warplanes while fishing in the Red Sea. Additionally, 476 fishing boats have been destroyed in the Red Sea. Furthermore, 215 fishermen were disabled while kidnapped by coalition forces or their affiliated armed groups. The report claims that in November 2019, a US navy battleship – the USS Forrest Sherman – rescued eleven Yemeni fishermen from drowning and handed them to the Coast Guard in Al-Mahra province’s Nishtun port. They are now in a detention center for ‘prisoners of war’ in the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, as was reportedly confirmed by the father of one of the fishermen.

According to a Norwegian council for refugees, there have been at least 334 fishermen killed or injured since 2015, when the war began.

Newlinesmag.com February 2021

The newspaper Reuters reported under the heading Coalition warplanes force Yemen’s fishermen into the shallows in November 2021 that, according to fishermen operating in Hudaydah around 300 fishing boats had been attacked at sea during the conflict, “and 300 others cannot reach waters where they can make a catch. The flying is day and night.” Fighter jets and helicopters of the Saudi-led Coalition patrolling the Red Sea coast, “We cannot reach areas where there are fish because of the airplanes flying overhead.”

Yemen’s air space and most of its coastal waters are controlled by the alliance, which intervened in Yemen in March 2015. The Coalition’s imposed restrictions on fishing along the Red Sea coast have created more hardship for hungry families in north Yemen, where food is scarce after years of war and amid a blockade on Houthi-controlled ports. Fish prices have more than doubled due to the risk of venturing in dangerous waters and high fuel prices.

The Global Times reported on lived experiences combined with the indispensable economic value of the fishing industry in Yemen. The export of fish, which was a crucial business in the city, has been completely stopped.
Before the war, the fishing industry employed more than half a million people and was the country’s second-biggest export behind oil and gas.
In 2018, Al-Mwafa and his boat were hit by an airstrike when he sailed “a little too close” to the blockade lines.

The news outlet Al Jazeera provides specific details in terms of measured restrictions put on the fishing industry in the report ‘Yemen fishermen face starvation at home or death at sea.‘
Fearing attacks by the Saudi-UAE alliance, fishermen have cut their fishing zones from 100 nautical miles to 25. The fighting near Hodeidah poses a mortal threat to an industry the World Bank says employed some 10,000 people before the war.

The Middle East Eye reported in March 2022 on the same persistent issue inflicting fishermen and their families across Yemen with the focus on fishermen in Aden, who in their desperation venture to territories of close by countries, such as Somalia.

“Every day I go to sea, I tell my family that I might not return as the threats in the sea are great, either in Yemen or Djibouti or Somalia. I have been forced to go out far beyond Yemen’s territorial waters and head for Somalia, where there are plentiful fish stocks. When Somali coastguards arrest us, they seize all our fish and take our boats and sometimes they shoot at us when we try to flee.” When coastal guards seize boats, they arrest even children and demand high fines to be paid.

Large commercial fishing vessels from the Gulf States (UAE, Saudi Arabia) were trawling for fish every day. “It isn’t safe for us who fish in the traditional way to fish in Yemen, but the Emirati and Saudi fishing vessels are allowed to dredge our fish from anywhere they want,” Malik said.

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.

Middle East Eye

Lastly, some positivity from Al Mashira during Ramadan. 13 Yemeni fishermen have been released from detention in Sudan through the joint cooperation work between the Fishermen Protection Commitee, the zakat office, and the Yemeni authorities. The Sudanese costal forces detained the fishermen five months ago, while the latter had been experiencing a malfunction with their boat and decided on approaching the nearest port in the emergency. Sudan, a party to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition invading Yemen on 26 March 2015, has now its very own war raging.