Chinese fishing crew safe after hijack but is piracy returning to Gulf of Aden?

Attacks remain well below 2011 peak but China’s vast maritime interests in the waters off Somalia could be targeted, observers say

Reading Time:3 minutes

The pirates that prowl the Horn of Africa from Somalia’s coastline – the continent’s longest – prey largely on foreign fishing interests, which include a strong Chinese presence. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:00pm, 15 Jan 2025Updated: 3:31pm, 15 Jan 2025

The hijacking of a Chinese-owned fishing vessel with up to 18 people on board in the waters off Somalia in November raised concerns about the return of piracy to the Gulf of Aden, where China has vast maritime interests.

Those concerns were once again at the fore on Monday, when China announced through its embassy in Mogadishu that the boat and its crew had finally been released after the unremitting efforts of the Chinese government.

According to the embassy, the vessel was placed under the illegal control of an armed group in the waters off the coast of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in Somalia’s northeast, and taken to its Xaafuun district.

The embassy strongly condemned the “vicious action which threatened the safety of the crew and international navigation security”.

It did not say whether money was paid to the group, which initially demanded US$10 million in ransom and was reported to have turned down offers of US$300,000 and US$1 million.

Paul Nantulya, a China specialist at the National Defence University’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington, said that if a ransom was paid to release the vessel it would not have been out of the ordinary.