Hiiraan Online
Thursday October 25, 2018
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somalia’s government has cancelled the registrations of commercial and fishing ships sailing under the country’s flag in a move that means there will be no Somali-flagged maritime transport in the near future unless they renew their registration licenses.
With no modern maritime law in place, Somalia which is recovering from decades of civil unrest continues to maintain the country’s old 1989 marine law ratified by the United Nations.
The new government says that it remains committed to exercising the sovereign rights of its country with regard to the exploration and conservation of the natural resources which it deemed appropriate to proclaim the Exclusive Economic Zone of Somalia.
In its first step in strengthening and enforcing its maritime security capacity, Somalia’s ministry of ports and transport says it cancelled licenses for ships and boats sailing under the country’s flag that officials said exploited the country’s lawlessness to trawl the sea in violation of the country’s marine code of conduct for nearly two decades.
“Therefore, we are hereby informing the ships and boats concerned to return the certificates of commercial and fishing boats sailing under the Somali flag that are currently in their possession to the ministry.” the ministry said in statement issued on Thursday.
“The ministry will hereafter issue a new maritime code of conduct and registrations in accordance with our country’s maritime law.”
Meanwhile, the government has also warned that ships and boats that fail to comply with the new regulations will face appropriate actions pursuant to the national and international maritime regulations.
For decades, foreign ships, including some sailing under Somalia’s flag have been accused of taking advantage of the horn of Africa nation’s fragile governments and lawlessness by plundering the fishing grounds of Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline which is among the richest in the world, teeming with all types of marine fishes.
Since the end of Somali piracy attacks, thanks to the international naval forces that have chased them away, fishermen complain of harassment by foreign trawlers that have reportedly killed several fishermen in recent years. As a result, Somali fishermen now fear for their lives, with many have since quit fishing amid the deadly harassment against them that has raged largely unseen and unreported.
In the absence of an effective marine force in addition to their government’s capacity to deal with the challenges facing them, sentiments against foreign trawlers are high, raising fears of return of Somali piracy that many say once helped to scare away foreign fishermen plundering their coast at the expense of Somali fishermen who are largely dependent on fishing for survival.
Despite the new regulations issued by Somalia including the revocation of licenses for ships and boats sailing under its flag, maritime experts worry that some of the ships affected may employ ships-reflagging tactics in an attempt to mask their ownership which could make it easier for criminal networks to operate off Somali coast undetected without attracting attention from Somali or other international maritime authorities.
Somali government has earlier asserted that its exclusive economic zone extends to a distance of two hundred (200) nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial waters of the Somali Republic is measured.