Somaliland has seized more than 51 Yemeni boats and an Egyptian ship for fishing illegally in its waters, an official has said. Admiral Ahmed Osman said coast-guards had also arrested more than 250 fishermen who were on board. This is the biggest arrest ever by Somaliland’s coast- guards, trained by Western states to curb piracy and illegal fishing off its coast. Illegal fishing has deplet-ed fishing stocks along the Somali coast. Correspondents say years of illegal fishing by foreign trawlers devastat-ed the livelihoods of many people, some of whom then became pirates who at-tacked vessels for ransom. Piracy in the region has declined in recent years fol-lowing the deployment of a multi-national naval force. Last month, the Europe-an Union Naval Force pro-vided training and equip-ment to the Somaliland coast-guard.
