Thursday, March 27, 2014
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Somalia's federal state of Puntland have launched a database to register Somali fishermen aimed at properly identifying them apart from pirates, the FAO said in a statement Thursday (March 27th).
In the past12 months, more than 3,100 of Puntland’s estimated 6,500 fishermen have registered their biometrics data with the FAO, according to Jorge Torrens, the fisheries officer managing the project funded under the New York Anti-Piracy Trust Fund.
Somali fishermen have been largely affected by counter-piracy operations in the Indian Oceans and the Gulf of Aden, and the new database is expected to allow the fishing communities to better access certain areas and for general identification purposes.
"This country has the longest coast in continental Africa and is one of the richest in fisheries resources; that is why I am pleased today that we, by developing this database, are helping Somali fishermen get back into business at sea with few hindrances," FAO head Luca Alinovi said.
Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said the new database would help anti-piracy forces recognise the fishermen.
"Not everyone at sea is a pirate and not everyone at sea is a fisherman that is why this database that will help us to distinguish pirates from fishermen is important for all of us," Ali said