Turkey throws Somalia a lifeline to crack down on illegal fishing

Somalia loses about $300-million annually to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in its vast waters. Boasting Africa’s longest coastline – about 3,333km along the northern Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden – the country’s seas are highly lucrative for both legal and illegal fishing operations. 

Weak governance, political instability and lack of effective law enforcement aggravate the illegal fishing problem. To address this, Turkey and Somalia signed a memorandum of understanding in February 2024, establishing the Turkish Armed Forces as a partner in Somalia’s maritime security and law enforcement for the next 10 years.

Most illegal fishing in Somalia is carried out by foreign fishing vessels from countries like China, Iran, South Korea, Taiwan, Spain and other European nations. A Mogadishu-based researcher who requested anonymity said operators of some foreign vessels illegally obtained fishing licences. 

“There is no way for the government to know how much fish has been taken as they rarely report back,” he said. “They process the fish and export to international markets.”

But the problem is also closer to home, with some federal member states, such as Puntland and Somaliland, issuing their own licences without consulting Somalia’s federal government.

In the early 2000s, with the near depletion of domestic stock due to illegal fishing, hundreds of Somali fishermen turned to highly risky but lucrative piracy to “protect” the country’s resources and support their threatened livelihoods through ransom-taking. 

Multinational naval force interventions helped eliminate the threat to Somalia’s coastal waters. This security was, however, disrupted in 2024 when signs of a potential resurgence emerged, partly linked to Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.

In 2011, President Recep Erdoğan, Turkey’s prime minister at the time, made a historic visit to Somalia and reopened its embassy in the capital, Mogadishu. The ongoing relationship has been a game changer for Somalia, with Turkey embarking on ambitious long-term investment plans while the rest of the world shunned the war-ravaged country.

Turkey provided the largest amount of international aid in the wake of a severe drought in Somalia in 2011, and has invested more than $100-million in the country’s economy. These investments span specialised combat training schools, hospitals, educational institutions and municipal services.

More recently, Turkey has invested in exploring and extracting vast hydrocarbon deposits off Somalia’s long coastline. Turkish soft power, buoyed by cultural, historical and religious affinity with the Muslim-majority nation, appears to be paying off.

Under the terms of the latest deals between the two countries, Somalia will outsource the protection of its territorial waters and marine resources to Turkey over the next 10 years. Turkey will strengthen Somalia’s maritime security capabilities through training, joint operations, information sharing and naval acquisition.

The maritime pact is expected to offer Somalia’s naval forces the reconstruction, equipment and training needed to monitor and curb the rise of illegal fishing in its waters. In return, Turkey should receive 30% of the revenue from Somalia’s exclusive economic zone and control of gas and oil explorations. Estimates show that Somalia has a potential of 30 billion barrels of oil and gas.

It is not known how the deal will affect the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and the breakaway Somaliland, which have similar arrangements with other regional powers.

Turkey has a strong track record in implementing capacity building in Somalia’s security sector. This includes training elite units, establishing Camp TURKSOM (a Turkish military base), selling unmanned aerial vehicles to Somalia, operating Mogadishu’s main airport and seaport, and participating in counterterrorism air strikes against al-Shabaab.

That means Turkey’s promise to build Somalia’s naval capacity is likely to bear fruit – enhancing the latter’s ability to control its maritime zone, apprehend illegal vessels, curb toxic dumping and avert piracy in collaboration with Turkey’s navy.

However, challenges still exist. A memorandum of understanding signed at the beginning of 2024 between landlocked Ethiopia and Somaliland could complicate the equation. Although the exact terms of the agreement are unclear, the gist is that in return for Ethiopia’s recognition of Somaliland, Ethiopia will get sea access and a military base in the strategic Gulf of Aden.

Somalia initially saw this as a violation of its sovereignty and demanded that Addis Ababa cancel the deal. In December 2024, Turkey facilitated a meeting between Somalia and Ethiopia, and the resulting Ankara Declaration eased tensions between the two countries regarding sea access. 

However, should Somalia try to extend its jurisdiction over Somaliland’s exclusive economic zone, the Turkey-Somalia maritime cooperation agreement may exacerbate tensions. 

Somalia has been a site of intense competition between powerful countries, such as the US, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, the UK and China. Many of these states have invested in ports, health and education, counterterrorism, security sector capacity support and infrastructural development.

These nations may not be impressed with the growing exclusive access Somalia has given to Turkey. The Somalia-Turkey deal could irk some into withdrawing or scaling down their crucial security sector and development support. This will slow Somalia’s pace of recovery.

An intricate balancing act will be needed to keep Turkey focused on helping to curb illegal fishing while Somalia rebuilds a more peaceful future with its neighbours and other international partners. DM

Samira Aden Abdi, research officer, and Halkano Wario, East Africa Regional Organised Crime Observatory, ENACT, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Nairobi.

ENACT is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Security Studies in partnership with Interpol and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

First published by ISS Today.