Foreign fishing ships, trawlers and speed boats had been carrying out fishing in waters of the horn nation for years.

A report by the campaign group Secure Fisheries in 2017 said up to 2.4 million tones of fish have been caught in Somali waters illegally in the last 60 years.

Most commonly, the fleets hail from Iran, Yemen and as far as Southeast Asia. However they do not work alone, and are often only able to function thanks to support from Somalia’s notoriously corrupt state institutions

Four decades of civil war has left the East African nation’s institutions weak and disorganized. 

In a statement, Somalia's Attorney General Suleiman Mohamed Mohamud has warned that foreign vessels fishing in the country's waters will be confiscated.

"Illegal fishing in Somalia is a national disaster and one of the biggest catastrophes to Somalia's resources,” he said, noting that Somalia’s marine resources remain untapped.

Maritime experts classify Somalia among the countries with the weakest maritime security in the world. This has led to unreported, unregulated and illegal fishing, which is destabilizing local fishers who cannot compete with foreign trawlers.

The remarks of the AG come barely a year after Somali government accused over 100 Iranian vessels of fishing illegally in Somali waters between January 2019 and April 2020.