Fears of resurgence in Somali piracy after three vessels hijacked in a week | Somalia

Three vessels were hijacked off the coast Somalia in the past week, raising fears of a resurgence in piracy around the Horn of Africa and adding to the woes of the global shipping industry.

The merchant vessel Sward was taken over on April 26, a day after a dhow was seized. It followed the April 21 hijacking of Honor 25, a car tanker carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean (MSCIO), the tracking service of the EU’s naval force.

“All incidents remain ongoing…,” the MSCIO said in a statement statement on Monday. “Vessels operating in the area are strongly advised to maintain heightened surveillance … particularly within 150NM (nautical miles) of the Somali coast between Mogadishu and Hafun where possible.”

Piracy around Somalia surged in the late 2000s, peaking in 2011 with 212 attacks, according to the EU naval force data. Pirates have become more daring, attacking ships as far as 2,270 miles off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean.

An international naval coalition then stemmed the tide of attacks, reducing them to just a handful each year since 2014. However, incidents began to happen rising again in 2023.

Global shipping is already reeling from the near-total shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran and attacks by the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels around the now Bab el Mandeb Strait. Ships must pass through the strait to exit the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, with many then heading around the Horn of Africa.

Sward is a cement carrier that left the port of Suez in Egypt on April 13. It was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was captured by pirates about 6 nautical miles (11 km) from the Somali port town of Garacad. The ship had 17 crew members, 15 from Syria and two from India, according to three security officials from the autonomous Somali region of Puntland.

After the hijacking, shortly after 20:00 on Sunday, the pirates sent the ship to the coast and anchored it in a remote area near Garacad. Six armed men and an unarmed interpreter fluent in English and Arabic then boarded the ship.

“He not only talks to the crew, but also deals with the owner of the ship,” said one of the security officers. A second officer said: “The interpreter is in charge.”

By Tuesday morning, four more gunmen had boarded Sward, bringing the total number of pirates on board to 20, according to the officials.

Jethro Norman, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said pirates have taken advantage of international ships diverting resources to the Red Sea to fight the Houthi attacks, and Puntland’s Emirati-backed security forces being stretched thin.

Norman said: “Seronaut networks are testing the waters again and they are better equipped than the previous generation. GPS, satellite communications and hijacked dhow motherships allow them to operate by the hundreds of thousands offshore.”

A third Puntland security official said a shipment of khat, a narcotic stimulant widely distributed in the Horn of Africawas taken out to the pirates on the cement carrier in a small boat on Tuesday morning. It was driven about 150 miles from the inland city of Galkayo on Monday, suggesting the pirates have a network on land and may be preparing for a long siege at sea.