“Sierra Leone has been struggling to control illegal, unreported and unregistered fishing on our territorial waters,” Bio said in a speech during the commissioning of the naval patrol vessel on Monday.

Beijing’s contribution to Sierra Leone’s efforts was recognised even though fishing communities along the Atlantic coastline of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea have raised concerns that China’s distant-water fishing fleet has depleted fish stocks.

“This offshore capacity will obviously reduce the risk and deter those crimes in our maritime domain,” Bio said.

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Further, he said China had provided engineering equipment and overseas training and sent medical teams that had significantly enhanced the capacity of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF).

Francois Vrey, a research coordinator at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa at Stellenbosch University, said Sierra Leone was subject to a dire illegal fishing threat in its waters and Chinese trawlers were among illegal fleets entering the country’s waters.

He said Chinese vessels – whether flagged or licenced – dominated foreign fishing licences in Sierra Leone.

“China’s distant fishing fleet is vast and the Gulf of Guinea is fertile ground,” Vrey said.

“China is making a play in the Gulf of Guinea given that it is also seeking a naval facility in the Gulf of Guinea, and these waters are also in the picture in the Belt and Road Initiative.

He said Sierra Leone was a signatory to the Yaoundé Code of Conduct (YCC) that sought to respond to maritime security threats in the Gulf of Guinea.

“This vessel helps in its zone of responsibility as its other vessels also have limited reach, and this one can probably operate further out to sea,” Vrey said of the Madam Yoko.

China’s ambassador to Sierra Leone Wang Qing said the patrol boat gifted to Sierra Leone showed the shared views of both countries towards their long-standing friendship and military-to-military cooperation.

“I want to appreciate our Chinese military team who, since the arrival of the vessel, has been in the country to share expertise with the Sierra Leone Navy on how to operate the vessel and the machine,” Wang said.

Observers said Chinese military donations – typically military equipment and training – were a diplomatic means employed by Beijing to strengthen relations with the continent and protect its economic interests.

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Dr Ilaria Carrozza, a senior researcher at Peace Research Institute Oslo, said China’s donation of a navy patrol vessel to Sierra Leone was one of Beijing’s foreign policy tools to cultivate long-term relationships with African countries.

“Donating arms and military equipment is seen by the Chinese leadership as a cost-efficient way of building trust and promoting strategic cooperation between the People’s Liberation Army and the recipient’s armed forces,” Carrozza said.

She said military donations from China were typically associated with economic ties between Beijing and the recipient country and included the aim of protecting Chinese interests and citizens.

“In my research, I have found that China provides donations of arms and military equipment to nearly all African countries, which is coherent with its broader emphasis on South-South cooperation,” Carrozza said.

A study co-authored by Carrozza last year said China had provided military help to 47 African countries in the past two decades, with Zimbabwe and Angola the top recipients of military arms and training.

China’s total spending on security force assistance to African countries between 2015 and 2020 was around the US$25 million a year it pledged to the African Union in 2015, the study said.

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World’s first ‘smart’ fishing ship Guoxin-1 unveiled in China

World’s first ‘smart’ fishing ship Guoxin-1 unveiled in China

Koffi M. Kouakou, a senior research fellow at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Africa-China Studies, said Sierra Leone, a nation in the throes of electoral campaigns, needed security support.

He said that for decades pirates and drug traffickers used Sierra Leone to transit to Europe with devastating effects on its people, especially its youth.

“China is only responding to President Julius Maada Bio’s request to deal with challenges and protect the country’s battered coast, democracy and sovereignty,” Kouakou said.

“Chinese diplomacy delivers a smart bundle of development and security, or vice versa. This package is almost unbeatable and Western nations are struggling to compete with China on that front.”

At the Madam Yoko commissioning, Bio said Sierra Leone was taking part in a regional initiative to keep the Gulf of Guinea secure. The gulf, which stretches from Angola to Senegal and is a key shipping route, is said to be one of the world’s most dangerous places for attacks on ships, with piracy still frequent in the region.

For instance, early this month, pirates took control of a Chinese-operated oil tanker in the Gulf of Guinea. China has in the past decade taken part in dozens of military exchanges with countries from the gulf and deployed naval vessels for counter-piracy operations.

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David Shinn, a specialist in China-Africa relations at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, said China’s donation of patrol vessels – including some previously well used boats – to African countries was a common practice.

For example, Shinn said Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mauritania had been given patrol craft by China.

“In 2006, China even donated a gunship to Sierra Leone, which is an interesting choice of countries because of complaints by local fishermen about Chinese fishing in its offshore waters,” Shinn said.

He said licensed and unlicensed Chinese fishing vessels had been depleting fish stocks off Sierra Leone.

In 2021, China and Sierra Leone announced a controversial US$55 million Chinese-financed industrial fishing harbour, Shinn said.

“Sierra Leone may well use the vessel to discourage illegal fishing,” he said.