China announced through its embassy in Mogadishu that the fishing boat and up to 18 people on board, which were hijacked in the waters off Somalia in November had finally been released.
According to the Chinese embassy in Mogadishu, 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 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.
According to Nantulya, there have been incidents where ransoms were paid, including a case in 2021 when the Nigerian military was able to free a Chinese vessel and its crew after US$300,000 was handed over to the kidnappers.
“More generally, Chinese nationals and firms are now increasingly being viewed as prime targets of such crimes because they are now associated with wealth and financial assets,” he said.
Nantulya said this was a change from the late 1990s, when China and Chinese nationals were not associated with financial influence. At that time, most kidnapping targets were Americans in particular, followed by Europeans in general, he added.
The hijacking of a Chinese-owned fishing vessel in November raised concerns about the return of piracy to the Gulf of Aden, where China has vast maritime interests.
The latest incident was termed an “armed robbery at sea” by the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta, which said that none of the crew members were injured and the vessel was in transit to safe waters.
But observers said the case could indicate that the pirates of Puntland had returned. While last year’s attacks numbered the highest since 2012, they were in the tens – a far cry from the peak of 212 recorded in 2011.
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. There are also security threats from the terrorist group al-Shabab.