Saturday, May 19, 2007
Nairobi (sapa) - A group of 130 mainly Yemeni fishermen arrested by authorities off Somalia's breakaway northern region of Puntland more than two weeks ago have been released, a maritime official said on Friday.
Puntland officials detained the fishermen on May 2, in what was initially reported as a pirate attack, and charged them with illegal fishing on May 11, said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan branch of the international Seafarers Assistance Programme.
The fishermen, including one Tanzanian and nine Egyptians as well as 120 Yemenis, were "sent home after Yemeni and Puntland officials talked over the issue," Mwangura said.
They had been fishing in three large European-owned, Yemen-based boats and nine small Yemeni boats. The European vessels were not Finnish, as initially reported, Mwangura said.
Puntland declared itself autonomous from the rest of Somalia in August 1998 under the leadership of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the current president of the Somali interim government.
Somalia itself has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
Source: sapa, May 19, 2007