Three ships have been hijacked off the coast of Somalia in the past week, raising fears of a resurgence of piracy off the Horn of Africa and putting a new strain on the global shipping industry.
The merchant ship Sward was seized on April 26. The incident followed the April 21 seizure of the tanker Honour 25, which was carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean, a monitoring centre for the European Union’s maritime forces.
“All incidents are ongoing…,” the centre said in a statement. “Vessels operating in the area are strongly urged to exercise extreme caution… particularly within 150 nautical miles between Mogadishu and Hafu.”
Piracy off Somalia increased dramatically in the late 2000s, reaching a peak in 2011, when 212 attacks were recorded, according to European Union naval data. Pirate groups have since become increasingly bold, carrying out attacks as far as 2,270 miles off Somalia’s coast in the Indian Ocean.
An international maritime coalition has since curbed the attacks, with the number dropping to a few incidents a year since 2014. However, attacks have begun to increase again since 2023.
The global shipping industry is already struggling with the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Ships must navigate these routes to leave the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, with many passing around the Horn of Africa.
The Sward, a cement tanker, had left the port of Suez in Egypt on April 13, bound for Mombasa in Kenya, when pirates seized it about 6 nautical miles off the port city of Garacad. The ship was carrying 17 crew members, 15 of whom were Syrian and two from India, Puntland security officials said.
After the hijacking, which occurred shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, the pirates steered the ship toward the coast, anchoring it off the coast of Garacad. Six armed men and an unarmed interpreter who spoke English and Arabic boarded the ship.
“He is talking to the crew, and he also has contact with the owner of the ship,” one security official said.
On Tuesday morning, four more armed men joined them, bringing the number of pirates on board to 20, officials said.
Jethro Norman, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the pirates are taking advantage of the international military presence in the Red Sea to counter Houthi attacks, while Puntland security forces are dealing with different pressures.
“The pirate networks are once again testing their mettle, and they are better equipped than the previous generation. GPS, satellite communications and hijacked boats used as bases allow them to operate hundreds of miles out to sea,” he said.
