Chagos islands: The fight over Africa’s last British colony

DW, 22 November 2019

A piece of Britain lies between Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. To date the Chagos Islands are still under British control and their inhabitants live in exile. But the UK has missed a deadline to return them.

   

The anger in his voice is clearly audible. There is a lack of goodwill on the side of the British government, Olivier Bancoult says. The fight over the Chagos archipelago has been dragging on for too long. "We are continuing to put pressure [on the British government]," Bancoult told DW. As a young boy, Bancoult was one of the Chagos residents who were forced to resettle. Today he lives in Mauritius and as a lawyer has been fighting for the people of Chagos and their descendants to return to the islands. On Friday, November 22, the United Nations deadline for the return of the islands to its people. Bancoult is amongst the organizers of a demonstration outside the British High Commission in Mauritius.

Mauritius, which had once been part of the same colonial territory as the Chagos islands, gained its independence in 1968. Between 1968 and 1973, up to 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago were forced to move to Mauritius, the Seychelles and UK in order to establish a military base on the main island, Diego Garcia. In the meantime, the UK has leased it to the US until 2036. Chagos served as a military base for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The largest island, Diego Garcis, serves as a US military base

Geostrategic importance

"We were poor people who are living in peace and harmony until they made the decision to giv one of the largest islands to America to make a military base. Since that time our nightmare started. Many of us were forcibly removed from our native land to live in Mauritius and the Seychelles," Bancoult told DW. In February the International Court of Justice in The Hague, ruled that the archipelago is legally a part of Mauritius. The court said that Britain had illegally separated the islands from Mauritius and should give them back.

The British government rejected the ruling. "The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814," read a statement by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The statement, however, alleged that Britain had pledged  to hand over the islands to Mauritius when they are no longer needed for defense purposes.

In May, the UN General Assembly also called on the UK to handover the islands. The deadline for the handover expired on November 22, but the resolution is not binding and the UK seems to have no intention to make such a move in the near future.

The strategic location and the military role of the island, make the very calls for its independence very difficult.  Philippe Sands, a British lawyer who advises the Mauritian government on the Chagos matter, believes that talks between the UK, the US and Mauritius will continue to take place. "Mauritius has indicated that the military base could even remain on the island," Sands told DW.

Read more: The Commonwealth: Still relevant for Africa today?

The archipelago belings to the same island group as Mauritius which
gained independence from Britain in 1968

Clinging onto the last African colony

Sands believes that Britain's reluctance to bow to international pressure lies in the fact that it is still coming to terms with its new place in world politics. "[The UK] is a diminished power. It has lost its judge at the International Court of Justice, it has lost a series of resolutions at the UN General Assembly. I think its just taking time to come to the realization, that ist legal situation and is very different, but ultimately I think the UK will comply with the court," Sands said.

The UK, Sands explained, is paying a high price for its political losses. "They're in the process of leaving the European Union, and they have to negotiate new trade agreements and political agreements with several countries. The government is in real trouble and I think that is why it is clinging on to its last colony in Africa," Sands said.  For him, keeping the islands under British control amounts to a crime against the people of Chagos.

Chagossians celebrate the news of the UN resolution calling on the
UK give up control of the islands (February 2019)

Hopes set on upcoming UK elections

According to Sands, the UN is already preparing new maps which show the Chagos islands as part of Mauritius. Additionally Mauritius is the only country that can have legal rights to fishing and overflying rights of the area.

Sands and Bancoult have the hope that the upcoming UK elections set for December 12 could make a difference. "The Labour party has promised to respect the ruling of the International Court of Justice," Sands said. "If the next government is under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn that would be very good,” Bancoult said. "He already supports us."

According to Bancoult, 596 Chagossians who were forced to leave the islands are still alive today. All in all, he said, they have 9.800 descendants who identify as Chagossians. Bancoult himself finds the thought of growing old away from his homeland difficult. "Most old people want to die where they were born," he said.

African nations hail maritime deal

Yahoo – AFP, Emile Kouton with Sophie Bouillon in Lagos, October 15, 2016

A French Navy helicopter chases a boat carrying suspected Somali pirates as
part of an anti-piracy naval mission on May 3, 2009 (AFP Photo/Pierre Verdy)

Lome (AFP) - African leaders on Saturday signed a deal to boost security off the continent's economically crucial coasts, hoping to shore up development by tackling maritime crimes like piracy and smuggling.

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso hailed the African Union agreement as "historic", while Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said it showed Africa's ability to put together a continent-wide strategy.

Sassou Nguesso said 43 nations had adopted the binding agreement -- which will see countries pay into a special fund for maritime security -- at a summit in Togo's capital Lome.

The deal is designed to improve information-sharing between African nations, a weakness that pirates and smugglers have benefited from in the past, slipping between territorial waters with little trouble.

The talks drew 18 heads of state -- an unusually high figure for an AU meeting of this kind, signalling the importance that governments have placed on the need to cut piracy and other crime in Africa's waters.

As he opened the summit, Chad's President Idriss Deby, the current AU chief, noted that some 90 percent of Africa's imports and exports are transported by sea, making maritime security key to the continent's economic future.

Of the AU's 54 member states, 38 have coastlines.

Deby said the charter would "allow the promotion of commerce and the exploitation of the huge potential of the maritime sector, as well as the creation of wealth and jobs in several industries".

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso hailed the African Union agreement 

to boost security off the continent's coast as "historic" (AFP Photo/Marco Longari)

It would also "mark a decisive new step in the push to preserve the maritime environment", he added.

The deal will create new national and regional institutions to improve security in African waters, while the signatories pledged a string of measures to protect the maritime environment and fight trafficking in drugs, arms and people.

But Timothy Walker, a maritime security researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said the deal would allow countries to withhold information from each other if they judge this to be in the interests of national security.

"It's a big step but it can not be the final step. There is still a lot of work to do," Walker told AFP.

Piracy in focus

"African leaders have started to realise that the maritime domain is a source of economic opportunity for the future," Walker added.

Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told AFP ahead of the summit that there was a clear need for African countries to work together to combat an upsurge in piracy in order to make full use of the continent's maritime resources.

Piracy, smuggling and other crimes at sea have cost the African maritime sector hundreds of billions of dollars in recent decades, according to the AU.

Large-scale illegal fishing also helps drive piracy as it depletes stocks, reducing the legitimate economic activities of coastal communities.

Suspected pirates keep their hands in the air as directed by a patrol from the 

guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf, in the Gulf of Aden (AFP Photo/

Jason R. Zalasky)

In West Africa alone, the AU estimates that illicit fishing causes losses of 170 billion CFA francs ($285 million, 260 million euros) every year.

World piracy has been on the decline since 2012 after international naval patrols were launched off East Africa in response to violent attacks by mostly Somali-based pirates.

But the focus of concern has shifted to the Gulf of Guinea, where a new class of pirates -- mostly offshoots of militant groups from the Niger Delta -- have become active.

At least 27 attempted or successful hijackings and kidnappings at sea have been recorded off west Africa since April, according to the International Maritime Organization, compared to just two off east Africa.

The 17 countries lining the Gulf of Guinea have poor maritime surveillance capacities and have been trying for several years to boost cooperation to clamp down on piracy.

The deal will need to be ratified by at least 15 countries before it comes into force, and Barthelemy Blede, an ISS maritime researcher in Ivory Coast, said it remained to be seen whether there was "real will" to make the deal a reality.

"It's a historic act, but it's one thing to adopt a text and sign it, and another thing to ratify it," he told AFP.

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Shell agrees €70m compensation deal for Nigerian village hit by oil spills

DutchNews.nl, January 7, 2015

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has agreed to a $84m (€70m) out of court settlement with a village in the Niger Delta as compensation for oil spills in 2008 and 2009.

Lawyers for 15,600 Nigerian fishermen whose livelihoods were ruined by the spills say their clients will receive $3,300 each.

The remaining $30m will go to the community. Thousands of hectares of mangrove swamp were polluted by the spills, ruining drink water supplies and forcing the fishermen to find other jobs.

‘From the outset, we’ve accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo,’ Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of the company’s Nigerian subsidiary SPDC said in a statement. 

Shell says that both spills were caused by operational failure of the pipelines. 

More on this

An oil spill on the shores of the Niger Delta swamps. Shell has

said the recent oil spill is likely to be worst in a decade.

Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

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EU undermines its own development policies

Deutsche Welle, 20 April 2014

The EU is one of the largest donors of development aid, but these policies have not played much of a role in the European election campaign. Economic interests, meanwhile, are jeopardizing its effectiveness.

Euro rescue, the banking union, a reduction of bureaucracy and more power for the European Parliament: these topics have been dominating the European election campaign in Germany. The fact that the various parties aren't talking up the fight against poverty in Africa, promoting economic development in Asia or calling for the strengthening of democracy and human rights in Latin America seems, at first glance, logical. After all, they are the elected representatives of EU citizens.

"It is unfortunately the case that development policy plays a subordinate role in the voting decision," said Norbert Neuser, a member of European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party, and also part of the Parliament's Committee on Development. In recent years, the EU has achieved much with its development work in cooperation with Africa; the focus on the UN's Millennium DevelopmentGoals has led to measurable results.

Development work can curb migration

The objective of EU development aid is to promote good governance, along with human and economic development. This includes promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, as well as contributing to the fight against hunger and poverty. According to the European Commission, efforts to contain migration are not among the stated objectives of the EU's development work.

Poverty and a lack of opportunities have
forced many to flee to Europe

However: development success can help ensure that people remain in their home countries. In Ethiopia, for example, the EU has devoted 200 million euros ($276.3 million) to road construction. As a result, people living in remote villages now have a faster and more secure route to larger cities, where they can sell their products on markets, which has reduced rural poverty significantly.

Contributing to development and the reduction of poverty in the developing countries of the South are therefore in Europe's best interest. After all, those who don't see a future at home end up leaving. Like the people on crowded refugee boats picked up by the Italian, Spanish and Greek coast guards, or the hundreds of people that have tried to reach European soil by scaling the fences surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco.

Export subsidies ruining African farmers

More than half of world's official development assistance (ODA) comes from the EU and its member states, with a focus on cooperation with the so-called ACP countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Of the 79 ACP countries, many are former European colonies.

In the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in 2009, the EU pledged to a coherent policy when it comes to development. Accordingly, any European policy decisions in the areas of foreign relations, agriculture or economic expansion must not interfere with the objectives of development policy.

African farmers can hardly compete
with EU agricultural exports

The reality, however, is different. "On the one hand, the EU wants to do everything possible to fight poverty and hunger," said Christa Randzio-Plath, the vice president of the Association of German Development NGOS (VENRO). "On the other hand, they work against this development effort with food exports. What good is it to small farmers in Africa if their markets are flooded with cheap EU agricultural products?"

True, the EU subsidies for agricultural exports to Africa amounted only to 150 million euros this year. And in January, the EU commissioner responsible for agriculture and rural development, Dacian Ciolos, announced that export subsidies would be eliminated entirely - without giving a specific timeline. In any case, the damage is already done: decades-long export subsidies for products like poultry, for example, have driven many African farmers to ruin.

Unequal partnership

It's not just agriculture that has been affected, as European fishing fleets cast their nets off the African coast."Fisheries agreements allow the EU to benefit from African fishing stocks, and not the local population," said Randzio-Plath.

The EU does pay compensation to states that give European fishing vessels access to their waters and fish stocks. Senegal, for example, receives about 16 million euros per year, Mozambique a little over 4 million and Mauritania, 86 million euros. But according to the World Wildlife Fund, the market value of these catches is usually significantly higher than the compensation. In addition, coastal fishermen also lose their livelihood.

After the EU fishing fleets have taken what
they need, not much is left for locals

MEP Neuser is also critical of the various economic partnership agreements that the EU is currently negotiating with the ACP states. "There is definitely a need for some counseling in this area, since the policies that we're negotiating there aren't very fair for the developing countries."

The EU has stated that partnership agreements are meant to encourage development in the ACP countries. But according to aid agencies, the opposite is the case. "In their current form, economic partnership agreements are far-reaching free trade agreements which mainly benefit European exporters."

The partnership agreements would require African countries to open their markets to European exports. They would also liberalize the service sector, allowing European investors to get involved in projects supplying services like drinking water, for example. But examples from other regions have shown this usually leads to price increases, without much improvement in quality.

Elites must take responsibility

But lack of coherent policy from the EU is only one side of the coin. The "failure of the elite" in many African countries cannot be pinned on Europe's development policies, said Neuser, giving the "negative example" of Nigeria. "It's a very rich country thanks to its oil reserves, but enormous amounts are disappearing and the elites are unbearably rich," he said.

The EU must "confront the elites floating on their oil fields and raking in the money," said Neuser. One way it could help would be to assist with the development of efficient tax systems. The EU could also contribute by closing its many tax havens, stemming the flight of capital from Africa.

Surf's up in Sierra Leone

Deutsche Welle, 14 February 2014

When we think of surfing in Africa, it's usually images of South Africa and its high waves that come to mind. In West Africa surfing is not so common but the tiny country of Sierra Leone could be the next hot spot.

As 17 year-old Kadiatu Kamara (known for short as KK) waxes up her surf board and gets ready to hit the waves, she explains how her local surf club has not only helped her gain self-confidence but has also helped her stay in school because money from the club goes towards her school fees. And that's the whole idea - to give back to the community the money the surf club brings in.

"I like surfing because surfing can keep me busy and it changed my attitude. My mother doesn't have money to pay for me to go to school and surfing helps me to pay my school fees," KK told DW.

Young surfers head for the waves
of Bureh Beach

The club, which opened in 2012, is located near a fishing village called Bureh Town which has a population of about 200 people. It's home for KK and most of the surfers.

Club manager Jahbez Benga says part of the takings also goes towards paying for transport for children and young adults to attend school as as well as towards health services in Bureh Town. A share of the proceeds is also invested in the club itself.

Sustaining the environment

Benga told DW help has also come from German nongovernmental organization Welthungerhilfe which provided funding for the surf club. The NGO wanted to offer an alternative sustainable lifestyle for people in the community.

"Some of the guys before, they were charcoal burning, they cut down the trees to burn coal. We all agreed if they build us this surf club, some of the guys would stop going to the forest and the surf club would support the community and now we all have a lot of trees and it's good for all of us," Benga said.

Forestry management is one of Welthungerhilfe's goals and country director Jochen Moninger is pleased with the community's decision to stop cutting down trees.

"If you go out there in the bay, in your boat, you see the hilly mountains with the rain forest - it's just beautiful," Moninger said. He estimates that the club brings in about 2,000 euros ($2,700) a month.

Gaining confidence

For 17 year-old surfer Charles Samba, being a part of the surf club and working there as a volunteer has helped him gain self-confidence, just like KK.

Charles Samba works as a volunteer
at Bureh Beach Surf Club

He says his social skills have improved because of the clientele the club brings in, many of whom are foreign nationals.

"Now I know how to speak with people. Before I didn't know, like if I saw white people I would run, but now surfing makes me speak with different kinds of people," Samba said.

Bureh Beach Surf Club was initially set up by an Irishman named Shane O'Connor. He has always been an avid surfer himself and when he discovered the untapped beach in Bureh he decided to create the surf club with the goal of helping the community. Many surf boards were donated from Ireland.

Promoting tourism

O'Connor says eventually the hope is to get other West African countries all working together to promote tourism through surfing.

"Here in Sierra Leone we have a club now. There's also one in Liberia, one in Ghana, one in Ivory Coast and we're trying to form a little bit of a West African association, which is slowly coming together," said O'Connor.

Sierra Leone's young surfers are now eagerly looking forward to an international surfing competition to be held at Bureh Beach this coming September.

Seized Russian trawler leaves Senegal after $1 mn payment

Google – AFP, 23 January 2014

The Russian trawler 'Oleg Naïdenov'is moored in Dakar on January 5, 2014

(AFP/File, Seyllou)

Dakar — A Russian trawler impounded by Senegal which accused it of illegal fishing has left the port of Dakar following an agreement by Moscow to pay $1 million, a military source said Thursday.

The Senegalese navy official in charge of monitoring the ship -- impounded in the capital for almost three weeks -- told AFP the Oleg Naydenov "left the port of Dakar yesterday evening, it is no longer here".

The ship's release follows an announcement by Russia's fishing authority that it would pay the $1 million (750,000-euro) "deposit", while Senegal referred to it as a fine.

Senegal impounded the Oleg Naydenov on January 4 after accusing it of fishing without a permit in its waters, causing an uproar in the Russian press.

Senegalese Fisheries Minister Haidar El-Ali said on Wednesday he had agreed to the payment because going to court "would take a lot of time and the outcome would not be guaranteed".

El-Ali, a renowned environmentalist turned minister who has long fought for the west African nation's waters, said on Wednesday: "Senegal has shown its determination to manage its fishing resources well."

After he became fisheries minister in 2012, El-Ali cancelled the licences of more than 20 foreign trawlers amid growing resentment among locals whose 30-foot canoes could not compete with a heavily subsidised European Union fleet of 10,000-tonne factory ships.

But non-EU trawlers are continuing to overfish the coastline, and families are finding it increasingly difficult to source the main ingredient for Senegal's national dish, a fish and rice meal known as tieboudienne.

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Indonesian Fishermen Stranded in South Africa After Horror Story at Sea

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Stuart Graham, December 2, 2013

Two of the 75 Indonesian fishermen living on seven rusted Taiwanese-registered
fishing boats sit at Cape Town Harbor on Nov. 28, 2013. (AFP Photo/Rodger Bosch)

Cape Town. Dozens of Indonesian fishermen who spent months stranded in Cape Town’s harbor, sleeping in cramped and suffocating quarters, have been taken ashore to a repatriation center after being stuck at sea for years without pay.

The group of 75 fishermen tell of slavery-like working conditions aboard seven Taiwanese-owned vessels — an ordeal that only grew worse when South African authorities impounded their trawlers for illegal fishing.

The crew spent three months stranded in Cape Town’s Table Bay, sleeping crowded together in dirty, airless quarters that reeked of diesel, until they were moved to a repatriation center in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The captain has been arrested, but the men lacked the legal papers to go ashore, and had been living like prisoners on the trawlers, dependent on the compassion of locals for food.

Some of the men say they were recruited by agents in Jakarta with promises of earning up to $200 a day fishing tuna.

But once on board they were forced to work round-the-clock with little food and no pay.

“You can start at two o’clock in the morning and work all the way to 10 at night. And then two o’clock in the morning you start again,” one dejected worker told AFP.

Many of the fishermen did not want to give their names for fear of repercussions from the recruitment agents back home who lived near their families.

After local media began covering the men’s story, immigration officials took them ashore, said Miriam Augustus, who had been providing them with food and water.

“I asked the policeman why they are moving the fishermen,” Augustus said. ”He said, ‘This is what happens when you go to newspapers and say bad things about the country.’”

South Africa’s fisheries department did not respond to requests for information on the men.

The men said despite their horror story, they are determined to wait for payment, saying they cannot afford to go back home penniless.

“I have a wife and three children at home,” said one man. ”After all this time how can I return without even one cent to my name?”

Laundry hangs on seven rusted Taiwanese-registered fishing boats where 75 stranded
 Indonesian fishermen have been living at Cape Town Harbor, on Nov. 28, 2013
(AFP, Rodger Bosch)

‘Floating shanties’

A 44-year-old man said he had worked on various vessels for 37 months without pay, often transferred to other boats when his contract expired.

The men also claim that at times they were ordered to repaint the name of their vessel at least five times a day, in an attempt to evade fishing authorities.

Tuna was not the only fish caught during their lengthy stay at sea. Other catch included swordfish, dolphins and sharks, in contravention of local marine laws.

A fishing log from one boat showed a catch of 70 tones.

Cassiem Augustus, a ship inspector for the International Transport Workers’ Federation, said the trawlers were like “floating shanties.”

“This is a blatant case of abuse and human trafficking,” he said. ”They have been abandoned by their agents and no one knows who the owners of these vessels are.”

He said inside the vessel there was one toilet for 12 men and that they had been drinking out of a tap used to pump oil one day and water the next.

“The conditions were inhumane. None of these men have been paid a cent, despite working 20 hour days. It’s slavery at sea.”

A spokeswoman for the Indonesian consulate in Cape Town said the fishermen were mostly uneducated and were from rural areas.

“They have no jobs and when they are offered one they become excited,” she said.

Maritime lawyer Alan Goldberg, who has applied for the vessels to be auctioned on behalf of the crew, suspect that the trawlers were owned by fishing cartels.

“These tales of abuse are the ordinary course of business in the longline fishing industry,” he said.

He said he doubted the run-down fiberglass boats would fetch a high price.

Agence France-Presse

Guinea threatened with EU sanctions for illegal fishing

Google – AFP, 26 November 2013

Children play on fishing boats in the harbour at Conakry, Guinea, on August 10, 

999 (AFP/File, Issouf Sanogo)

Brussels — The European Commission on Tuesday urged EU governments to hit Belize, Cambodia and Guinea with trade sanctions over illegal fishing, while warning South Korea, Ghana and Curacao they may be next.

The European Union executive called for action against the first three with no 'credible progress' made since hitting them with so-called 'yellow cards' last year along with five others.

Once placed on an official list of "non-cooperating countries" in the fight against illegal fishing, related products from those territories will find themselves all-but shut out of the EU market of half a billion consumers.

The Commission also flagged up a new round of 'yellow cards' which puts key free-trade partner South Korea, Ghana and Caribbean island Curacao under mounting pressure to meet international obligations.

"West Africa was identified as a major source of illegal fishing and my intention is now take the same thorough approach in the Pacific," said EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki.

Damanaki told a press conference that for South Korea, Ghana and Curacao, "this is not about EU legislation -- we are implementing international rules."

"We are very much willing to give them more time."

She said the "right to fish as they want" had to be set against the EU's "right to protect consumers."

The EU says at least 15 percent of all landings around the world are done illegally, between 11 and 16 million tonnes each year, with international rules agreed in 2001 routinely flouted.

Five countries made sufficient progress this year to avoid being expelled from EU markets at least until March next year: Fiji, Panama, Sri Lanka, Togo and Vanuatu.

The EU imports 65 percent of its fishing consumption.

Campaigners Greenpeace said the decisions announced would "motivate all six countries to improve fisheries management and help create a better future for their seas and fishermen.?

Pirate fishermen sell illegal haul to Europeans

Deutsche Welle, 11 October 2012

An investigation by the Environmental Justice Foundation has found that nine out of 10 trawlers caught fishing illegally in Sierra Leone send their catch to Europe. The government is working to fight the problem.

A two-year investigation by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has found evidence of illegally caught fish entering the European market. The British-based environmental and human rights charity says nine out of 10 trawlers caught fishing illegally in Sierra Leone are actually accredited to export their catch to Europe.

The EJF claims that West Africa has the highest levels of illegal fishing in the world, and says it found evidence of bribery, attacks on local fisherman, the use of banned fishing equipment and trawlers fleeing to neighboring countries to avoid fines. The group is calling for vessels to be blacklisted, and it wants the European Union to strengthen regulations to stop illegal catches from entering Europe. 

The government in Freetown is
struggling to combat illegal fishing

In less than two years, the EJF has received 252 reports from local fisherman of pirate fishing along the coast.

"The problems are many," Siaka Swarary, a local fisherman from the outskirts of the capital, Freetown, told DW. He says the trawlers that operate far out at sea are ruining the livelihoods of the local fisherman.

"We are disturbed by the bigger trawlers. Sometimes we go one, two, three days [without a] catch." Swarary says his brother lost a fisherman at sea last year when a trawler hit his boat at night and didn't stop to help, leaving the man to drown.

"Our wives, our children…everyone is suffering because we are surviving from this fishing. Without fishing we cannot pay school fees for our children or take care of our family," he said.

A blow to the economy

Sierra Leone loses around $30 million (23.4 million euros) every year through illegal fishing. For a country trying to rebuild itself after more than a decade of civil war, it's crushing for the economy.

Soccoh Kabia, the minister of fisheries and marine resources, says the main problem is that trawlers come inside the exclusion zone – an area reserved for local fisherman. 

Many subsistance fishermen are
just barely gettting by

"Many, not all of them, have disregarded that regulation with impunity and have often threatened the lives of fishermen, destroyed their gear, destroyed the environment. The [fish] spawning ground is in that area, so they have definitely affected the development of those areas," he said.

But Kabia, who has been working closely with the EJF and other partners, says things are slowly improving and that they have already collected more than $1 million in fines over the last 18 months. Last year, the West Africa Regional Fisheries Program, supported by the World Bank, began its work to combat illegal fishing.

"Recently, the government of Liberia had a vessel that escaped prosecution there, and they contacted our minister here in Sierra Leone to see if we could assist in arresting this vessel," said Salieu Sankoh, the program's national project coordinator in Sierra Leone. "We were able to arrest [the crew] and send [them] back to Liberia, which to us is a big feather in our cap."

More needs to be done

The EJF says more needs to be done to help West African coastal states reinforce their own security systems, so that more of these arrests can be made. It's calling for the EU to strengthen regulations, as well as the penalties for illegal fishing.

Swarary and his fellow fishermen have noticed fewer trawlers, but he says they still come at night, under the cover of darkness. He says he's doing everything he can to keep his children from following in his footsteps.

"It's a very hard life. I'm suffering so much," he said. "I don't want my children following me. That's why I prefer to suffer myself and put them [through] school, and maybe after school they will get a better job."

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Fishermen return from their night's labours. About 1 million

 people in Senegal depend on the industry for food.

Photograph: Randy Olson/National Geographic/Getty Images

Fishermen from Gaza risk their lives at work

Nigeria oil spills: Dutch case against Shell to begin

BBC News, 11 October 2012 

Nigeria's Deadly Delta 

• Illegal oil refineries
• Precarious oil amnesty
• 'Blood oil' dripping from Nigeria
• The day Nigeria hit oil

The Niger Delta has few major roads
 and many villages lack electricity and
clean water

Oil giant Shell is due to appear in court in the Netherlands to face charges of polluting Nigerian villages.

The case is being brought by four Nigerian farmers and the Dutch branch of campaigners Friends of the Earth.

It is the first time a Dutch multinational is being put on trial in a civil court at home in connection with damage caused abroad.

The Anglo-Dutch firm insists that it has been unable to clean up the spills due to insecurity in the region.

It also says that more than half of the leaks are caused by theft and sabotage.

The case is linked to spills in the Ogoniland region of Nigeria.

The farmers say that oil spills from the oil firm's pipelines have destroyed their livelihoods by damaging crops and fish-farms.

One of the plaintiffs, Friday Alfred Akpan from the village of Ikot Ada Udo, told the BBC the oil leaks in his village had badly damaged his 47 fish ponds.

"Fish died as a result of the oil spill, making it difficult for me to live and put my children through school."

He told the BBC's Newsday programme he wanted compensation for the loss, and for Shell to clean up the spill.

If the farmers' case is successful it could set a legal precedent, paving the way for thousands of other compensation claims from those affected by oil spills, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague.

Last year, a report by the United Nations Environment Programme said that over half a century of oil operation in the region, by firms including Shell, had caused deeper damage to the Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta than earlier estimated.

In August, the company accepted responsibility for two specific spills in the region in 2008 and 2009, saying it would settle the case under Nigerian law.

The Nigerian farmers and their legal team argue that Shell

could have prevented the spills

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