Fears of resurgence in Somali piracy after three vessels hijacked in past week

Three vessels have been hijacked off the coast of 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 26 April, a day after a dhow was seized. These followed the 21 April hijacking of Honour 25, a motor tanker carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO), the tracking service of the EU’s naval force.

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

Piracy around Somalia jumped in the late 2000s, peaking in 2011 with 212 attacks, according to EU naval force data. Pirates became more audacious, raiding ships as far as 2,271 miles from the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean.

An international naval coalition then stemmed the tide of attacks, cutting them to just a handful each year from 2014. However, incidents began to rise again in 2023.

The surge in piracy is only the latest blow to global shipping, which is already reeling from the near-total closure of the strait of Hormuz by Iran and attacks by the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels around the narrow Bab el Mandeb strait. Ships have to sail through the straits 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 departed the port of Suez in Egypt on 13 April. It was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was captured by pirates about 11km (6 nautical miles) 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.