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*The names of the hijackers are pseudonyms on condition of speaking to Al Jazeera.
Mogadishu, Somalia – Liban Hassan* has spent most of his adult life fishing off Somalia’s northeast coast – often finding himself with a net in hand navigating waters near the town of Eyl in Puntland state, where he grew up.
But late last year, the 32-year-old traded a net for a gun when he and a group of other locals seized a Chinese fishing trawler and took its crew hostage off Puntland’s coast.
After a seven-week siege at sea, the ship and hostages were safely released this week.
