Kenya sends ship to bring Kilifi fishermen home from Chinese vessel
A Chinese fishing boat tied to fishing trawlers at Malindi Beach in Kilifi County on July 19, 2021.
Kenyan authorities have stepped up efforts to bring home three Malindi fishermen who went missing in the Indian Ocean, as new details emerged that a fourth one had died.
All four had been reported missing by their families in early December after going on a fishing trip for about a week.
Last week, the Kenya Coast Guard Services (KCGS) received a signal from a Chinese vessel confirming the identities of the Kenyan fishermen on board.
However, it has since emerged that one of the fishermen has died and the three are expected to arrive in the country soon.
KCGS director general Bruno Shioso said details of the fisherman's death were still emerging, but the agency had sent a vessel to pick up the three survivors.
"We are currently conducting the operation to bring them back. We have sent our vessel and we expect it to arrive where the other vessel is by midnight tomorrow (Thursday)," he said.
The move to send a boat may come as a relief to the families of the survivors, as earlier plans were for them to wait for the foreign ship to dock in Sri Lanka and then be flown back home by February 2024.
200 nautical miles
Mr Shioso said the KCGS ship left Mombasa on Tuesday and is still underway, more than 200 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast.
The Kenyan fishermen are outside Kenya's territorial waters and it is believed that their fishing boat may have drifted due to strong currents in the deep sea.
"We are waiting for the three survivors to give us more details about the incident, but we suspect that their missing colleague is dead," Mr Shioso added.
Concerns have been raised by the public about how the Chinese vessel rescued the three, questioning whether they were still within Kenya's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) at the time of their rescue.
Sources involved in the rescue operation said the aim at the moment was to return the three home and that further investigations would be carried out once they were safely reunited with their families.
The wreckage of the ill-fated fishing boat christened JODARI with registration number 6196 has not been found and is believed to have either been swept away by the tides or sunk deep in the sea.
