Egypt is following, through its consulate in Port Sudan city of Sudan, the detention of the Egyptian fishing boat "El-Haj Mohamed El-Dash", which was detained, along with its crew, on 29 January in Marsa Mohamed Qol, 2,000 kilometres north of Port Sudan, according to a statement from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zaid on Monday. Abu Zeid added that the Egyptian boat passed through a nature protectorate on its journey from Sudan to Egypt. Sudanese prosecution formed a committee to investigate the boat's location and check its contents and documentation, said Abu Zaid. He added that the committee found that the boat meets marine safety conditions and all necessary fishing and security permissions, which led the prosecution to only accuse the boat's crew of passing through a natural reserve, according to the statement. Abu Zaid stressed that the Consulate General of Egypt in Port Sudan is following the legal procedures of the trial with the owner of the boat in Egypt, the boat's marine agent in Sudan, and the crew's lawyer, in order to quicken the release of the boat and returning of the crew to Egypt. The consulate asserted that Sudanese authorities are providing the Egyptian fishermen with all their needs of food and medications, according to the statement.
