Another vessel seized off Somali coast as pirate attacks surge
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The threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia has risen after multiple ships were hijacked in recent days.
PHOTO: AFP
NAIROBI - A merchant vessel was hijacked off the coast of Somalia over the weekend, a maritime security monitor said April 27, as piracy incidents surge in the region.
Piracy was rampant off the coast of Somalia in the 2000s, peaking in 2011 with hundreds of attacks that cost the shipping industry billions of dollars.
The Horn of Africa nation lies near the opening of the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and has been highly unstable since the state collapsed in 1991.
The Maritime Security Organisation Indian Ocean, linked to the European Union naval force, said a merchant vessel was seized on April 26 and a dhow on April 25.
“Vessels operating in the area are strongly advised to maintain a heightened level of vigilance... particularly within 150 nautical miles of the Somali coast between Mogadishu and Hafun,” it said in a statement.
That follows reports from the UK Maritime Safety Organisation (UKMTO) that pirates took control of a cargo ship and tanker in two separate incidents on April 26, and re-directed them to within Somali territorial waters.
There have been multiple such incidents over recent days.
The threat of piracy in the region has increased from “low” to “substantial”, according to the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC), part of the Combined Maritime Forces, a 47-country coalition deployed to ensure security in the northern Indian Ocean.
“A Pirate Action Group is reported to be active in the Somali Basin,” it said in its latest update on on April 26.
The “substantial” threat level means there is a high probability of attack.
JMIC highlighted several other incidents, including the seizure of an oil tanker and the hijacking of a fishing vessel on April 23.
Before the current surge, the last incident reported by JMIC in the region was an attempted pirate attack on a tanker on Nov 7, 2025.
Acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia significantly decreased after 2011, thanks largely to the deployment of an international military coalition and the creation of a maritime police force trained by the EU in the Somali state of Puntland.
Commercial shipping firms also used new measures such as re-routing further from the coast, increasing speed, and deploying armed guards on board. AFP
