Driven by painful memories of his detention in an Eritrean prison, Yemeni fisherman Tareq al-Nahari instinctively raised his left hand to protect his head from a barrage of bullets fired by an Eritrean naval boat.The gunfire severed his ring and middle fingers, while one bullet pierced his skull.
Yet he survived, thanks to a medical miracle. However, the projectile that struck his temporal lobe erased his past, identity, and even his future, leaving him unable to form new memories, a condition known as anterograde amnesia.
Despite this, al-Nahari, who is in his forties, remains alive among his family, having escaped death. This is a better outcome than that suffered by his peers, including two fellow fishermen who were aboard the same boat and died in the same incident. One of them was his maternal cousin.
Yemeni fishermen face repeated acts of violence and successive crimes at the hands of Eritrean naval personnel, who intercept them and take them to a network of prisons and detention centres resembling Soviet Gulags.
Eritrean detention centres are no different. Abducted Yemenis are forced to perform arduous labour, including cutting roads through mountains, paving them and constructing military and civilian facilities, without pay or even adequate meals.
This is confirmed by the reports received by Majed Abdo, the sheikh of fishermen in Yemen's Hodeidah governorate. He holds his fellow countrymen responsible for what happens because they enter the territorial waters of a neighbouring sovereign state in their boats.
Amjad al-Omaisi, director-general of al-Khawkhah, a district in the Hodeidah governorate that faces Eritrea on Yemen's western coast, rejects this view. Former Eritrean Supreme Court judge Abdullah Khayyar shares al-Omaisi's assessment.
Life in the Gulag
Tens of thousands of people earn their living from fishing in villages and settlements along Yemen's western coast.
Salem Alyan, a member of the Fisheries Cooperative Union, which organises and oversees the sector, estimates that there are 100,000 traditional fishermen supporting around one million people. However, the sea has become an immediate source of danger amid Eritrean attacks, he told our Arabic-language sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
This is borne out by the account of Issam Mohammed al-Nahari, who is accompanying his brother Tareq, now suffering from memory loss, on a medical trip to Sanaa. He is one of over 20 fishermen we interviewed during this investigation.
Issam said that when the boat incident occurred on Sunday, 25 January 2026, 50 fishermen were aboard the wooden vessel with his brother.
They were taken to the port of Massawa in southern Eritrea, despite insisting that they had been attacked in Yemeni territorial waters.
They were imprisoned for periods ranging from two months to one year. Issam said his brother arrived at Hodeidah hospital alongside the bodies of the two fishermen killed in the incident.
Tareq remained in intensive care for two months before being discharged with memory loss. He could no longer recognise any of his family members apart from his four-year-old daughter, Aya.
Issam said similar incidents frequently occurred to his fellow fishermen, who faced crimes, abuses, and enslavement in detention centres in Asmara without those responsible being held accountable.
"We were tortured to coerce us into forced labour and deprived of food, except for one meal of poor-quality lentils," he said.
He recalled another experience in the summer of 2024, when he was arbitrarily detained by the Eritrean navy alongside his father, Mohammed al-Nahari, and others.
"Throughout the month, I was subjected to severe beatings in front of my father. In the end, I gave in and agreed to work breaking stones from a nearby mountain in the city of Assab, in southeastern Eritrea, so they could be transported and used to pave the roads," he said mournfully as he sat beside his brother Tareq.
He said he spent daylight hours working alongside 20 fellow fishermen under close surveillance by Eritrean naval soldiers armed with rifles and batons.
Medical reports obtained by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed indicate that Tareq al-Nahari is suffering from a concussion and has undergone two head surgeries.
His treatment has cost more than seven million Yemeni rials ($12,500), and he can no longer afford further medical expenses.
Some of his fellow fishermen were also detained in 2023 and forced into hard labour, breaking stones and building a school in Assab under the supervision of naval soldiers.
The soldiers repeatedly beat them whenever their performance declined because of the scorching heat.
They were fed only flour bran, normally used as animal feed, in addition to a meal of lentils.
As a result, Yemeni fishermen flee immediately whenever they sense an Eritrean naval boat approaching. This has led to repeated cases of drowning and injuries at sea.
The consequences of division and war
On 18 May 2023, Mwatana for Human Rights, a Yemeni non-governmental organisation, announced that Eritrean naval forces had detained 69 Yemeni fishermen in three incidents between 2019 and 2022. Minors were among those detained and subjected to forced labour.
Meanwhile, fishermen whose testimonies were documented by this investigation, said 184 of their colleagues had been detained between the beginning of 2023 and January 2026. Of these, 95 remain in captivity.
However, sources agree that the actual number is much higher and that no official body has documented the total number of fishermen detained over the past years.
This is due to the political and security crises that have gripped Yemen for more than a decade, with serious consequences for traditional fishing.
While politicians have been preoccupied with the war, attacks by the Eritrean navy have escalated amid the difficult economic conditions facing fishermen and their families.
Fishermen either lose their lives or have their equipment seized by Eritrean naval forces before being taken to detention centres in Marsa Fatima, Assab, Massawa, Dahlak and Tiro, as well as Terma Island in eastern Eritrea.
Accounts also indicate that some detainees are transferred to Lesser Assab and forced to work for Eritrean project contractors.
They work throughout the day and return to detention centres only in the evening. They are not repatriated to Yemen until the project is completed.
Their return takes place in stages, beginning with the injured, the sick, the elderly and younger detainees unable to endure the hardships of the work.
Among them is Abdul Salam Bishara, a fisherman from al-Khawkhah in the southern Hodeidah governorate. He suffered a slipped disc after being forced to break stones on a mountain near Assab in 2017.
He received no medical assistance before being deported to Yemen.
"They left me only because I was no longer able to work," he said.
He added that when Eritrean authorities decide to release detainees, another crime reportedly follows.
Large numbers of released fishermen are crammed into unseaworthy boats and sent towards the Yemeni coast without any consideration for their safety.
Between 50 and 60 fishermen are placed on a boat that would normally accommodate no more than 30 people.
Al-Omaisi, the director-general of the al-Khawkhah district, described this as one of the crimes against humanity committed by the Eritrean armed forces.
Speaking to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, he said Yemeni human rights organisations should defend the rights of these victims and file lawsuits against the Eritrean regime in international courts.
Violations of international law
Mohammed Amin, a lawyer at the Court of Appeal in Hodeidah, said the arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance and coercion of fishermen into working under threat constituted serious violations of international law.
These acts could amount to enslavement and crimes against humanity when committed on a widespread or systematic basis.
To secure justice for the victims, Amin told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that each case should be documented separately through the testimonies of survivors and witnesses, medical reports, photographs and documents, while identifying the date and place of detention and the authorities, individuals or officials responsible.
"After gathering the evidence, human rights organisations and victims' lawyers can submit case files to the relevant international bodies or explore the possibility of prosecution before national or international courts with jurisdiction. This would help ensure investigations, accountability, compensation and reparations for the victims," he added.
This view is shared by Colonel Abdul Ghani Abu Halfah, who has been tasked by the Sanaa authorities with following up on the treatment of injured people in government hospitals, both military and civilian.
He cited the case of Tareq al-Nahari, who was transferred to the military hospital in Sanaa. Abu Halfah noted that he is facing extremely difficult financial circumstances after becoming unable to work.
Between August and September, during this two-month-long investigation, 26 fishermen, most of them from al-Khawkhah, managed to return to Yemen. Port Director-General Ghali Qashr, the head of the Red Sea Fisheries Authority, Wael Abdul Wadoud, and al-Khawkhah Director-General Amjad al-Omaisi received them.
During their meeting with the officials, the returning fishermen confirmed that they had been in Yemeni territorial waters aboard two traditional wooden boats known as jalbah vessels when Eritrean naval boats attacked them and took them at gunpoint to Eritrean prisons.
Held in a prison in Assab, they endured torture and starvation before being forced into hard labor.
The Eritrean forces had seized a tonne of fish they had caught before their arrest, in addition to looting their fishing equipment.
They also took one of the boats, removed its engine and replaced it with an old, dilapidated one. Upon their return, the fishermen were forced to sail the vessel back to Hodeidah's shores, said al-Omaisi.
Seizing fishermen's livelihoods
Yemeni fisherman Musad Yusuf Zakhm, from Al-Khawkhah, said he was detained in June 2023 for two months alongside nine other fishermen in a prison in Assab.
During their detention, they were forced to cut and pave a road with stones near the city port after their boats had been intercepted and confiscated. They were also tortured and transferred to Lesser Assab, where they spent about 15 days before being released and deported to the city of Mokha.
He added that he had previously been detained in another incident, when he was abducted to Dahlak Island in mid-2022 and held for two months alongside 15 fishermen.
Their fishing equipment and supplies, including nets, refrigerators, the boat engine and its contents, were confiscated. The value of the seized property amounted to $10,000.
In another case, a fisherman estimated his losses at 18 million rials ($33,000), according to documentation examined by Mwatana for Human Rights.
For fishermen, confiscation means more than simply losing property: their boat represents their livelihoods and the means to provide for their families.
A timid official response
According to an official memorandum (No. 355) sent by Hussein Hamed al-Attas, chairman of the General Authority for Red Sea Fisheries, to Hodeidah Governor Abdullah Abdu Ahmed Ateifi on 21 February 2026, at least 95 Yemeni fishermen remain detained in Eritrean prisons.
Al-Omaisi, the director-general of al-Khawkhah, confirmed that violations against fishermen "take place almost daily, without any genuine official action to compensate the victims or prosecute the Eritrean authorities in international courts".
However, al-Omaisi emphasised that these crimes have no time limit for prosecution.
According to lawyer Amin, since Yemeni fishermen conduct their work under the ruling issued by the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 1998-1999, which demarcated the maritime boundary between the two countries, the abductions, torture, and forced labour they face constitute violations requiring accountability.
He explained that "what is happening to these fishermen violates Eritrean law, as they are subjected to abuses, have everything they own confiscated and are forced to work. It also violates international human rights law, which prohibits subjecting anyone to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and to arbitrary arrest or detention without a legal charge or a fair trial."
If Yemeni fishermen commit an offence, the appropriate measures under Eritrean law would be to confiscate any fish they are carrying and return them to their country, according to former Eritrean Supreme Court Judge Abdullah Khayyar.
He pointed out that Eritrea has no clear laws and that, even where laws exist, they are not enforced.
"Military rule and its consequences dominate the functioning of state institutions. Everything that happens is dealt with [...] through administrative and military procedures that fall outside the law," he told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
In light of all this, the internationally recognised Yemeni government has limited its response to calling on Eritrea to release the fishermen held in its custody.
However, these appeals do not always receive a response, according to a source at the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Fisheries in Aden, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The source cited a request made by the government in June 2020 for the release of detained fishermen and confiscated equipment.19 fishermen were released, while another 100 remained in detention.
Their suffering continues, with no solution in sight. Yet, as Issam al-Nahari said, fishermen cannot abandon their only source of livelihood.
"Death while searching for food to feed your children is better than dying of hunger."
Disclaimer: This investigation is republished from our Arabic sister website, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, and mirrors the source's original editorial guidelines and reporting policies.
The original investigation was published in Arabic on 28 September 2026.
Translated by Afrah Almatwari and edited by The New Arab investigative desk.
Video subtitles were translated by Rose Chacko.
Comments and questions should be addressed to Head of Investigations Mohamed Azzam: mohamed.azzam@alaraby.co.uk.
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