The Government of Yemen has
accused Eritrea of seizing Yemeni fishing vessels and last Saturday and of
detaining 24 people who were fishing in international waters, according to the
Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat.
Yemeni fishermen had demanded
the intervention of the Yemeni government to stop these aggressive activities,
saying that Yemeni fishing vessels were repeatedly robbed by Eritrean coastal
patrols.
In
1995 Eritrea invaded the Hanish Islands off the Red Sea, making territorial
claims on the Yemen-held territories. The case was later referred to the
International Court of Justice, which ruled that the Eritrean-invaded Hanish
Islands were Yemeni and not Eritrean and Eritrea was forced to pull out its
invasion forces from Hanish.
Following
the ruling last year, the Eritrean president Isaias Afeworki said that Eritrea
was forced to accept the verdict not because it was right but simply because the
Eritrean government had committed itself to accepting the ruling of the
International Court of Justice.