A ‘sea war’ brews off Gambia as desperate local fishermen attack foreign vessels, and each other

BANJUL, Gambia — Kawsu Leigh writhed in pain on the fishing boat, his burned skin as mottled as the paint on the deck beneath him. Raw and slick, the burns covered large parts of his upper body.

His day began as normal, with a shift on one of the foreign-owned vessels that carry out commercial fishing in waters off West Africa. It ended with him so badly injured from an arson attack that he struggles to recover a year later.

Local fishermen, angered by what they call illegal encroachment and sabotage by the foreign vessels off Gambia, had again confronted one of the boats, the Egyptian-owned Abu Islam.

But Leigh was a local sailor, too. Video of the attack, exclusively obtained by The Associated Press, documents an emerging problem in the fight for dominance in West African waters. Gambians are now fighting Gambians at sea, driven by market forces — and foreign appetites – beyond their control.

The problem came from attempted reforms. To give locals more say, and pay, in commercial fishing, Gambia’s government now requires foreign vessels operating offshore to carry a certain percentage of Gambian crew.

Those locals have become accidental targets of an anger they understand well, after trying to compete with the Chinese-owned and other foreign vessels with little more than small wooden boats and their bare hands.

The video was shared by the Association of Gambia Sailors, filmed minutes after the arson attack. The AP reviewed more than 20 such videos from various sources showing confrontations since 2023. Leigh said he is surprised to have survived, and unhappy that Gambians have been made into rivals.

Other clashes in the waters off Gambia have been deadly, with at least 11 local fishermen reportedly killed over the past 15 years.

“It’s like most of them, when they are going for fishing, it’s as if they’re going for war,” said Abdou Sanyang, secretary general of the Association of Gambia Sailors.

The fighting threatens to tear fishing communities apart, while overfishing to supply seafood buyers around the world undermines livelihoods for everyone. There are concerns that the fish population off Gambia could collapse in the coming years. That would be a business and environmental disaster in a small country with two main economic drivers: tourism and seafood.

For generations, Gambia’s fishermen have known no other work. Now, the financial pressures of competing with foreign-owned vessels are leading some to give up. They are tempted to sell…