European warships seize hijacked pirate mothership linked to Hellas Aphrodite attack off Somalia

EU warship seizes suspected pirate ‘mother ship’ off Somalia after tanker hijack; 24 crew freed unharmed

A 30-hour standoff ends without casualties in the Western Indian Ocean

European naval forces have captured an Iranian-flagged dhow believed to have served as a pirate “mother ship” in the hijacking of the oil products tanker Hellas Aphrodite, bringing a tense 30-hour standoff to a close and freeing all 24 crew members unharmed, officials said.

Operation Atalanta, the European Union’s counter-piracy mission, said the dhow was found abandoned on Somalia’s northwestern coastline after pirates fled the scene when a Spanish frigate, ESPS Victoria, and an Indian Navy warship moved to intercept the hijacked tanker roughly 700 nautical miles off Mogadishu. A boarding team later secured the dhow, verified identities and carried out medical checks on its crew, confirming they were “in good condition, safe and free,” Atalanta said.

The operation marks one of the most consequential counter-piracy actions in the Western Indian Ocean this year, a region vital to global trade and energy flows and increasingly under stress from overlapping crises at sea.

A multinational chase in a crowded sea

The Spanish frigate deployed a helicopter, uncrewed aerial systems and a Special Operations Unit to pressure the pirates, while Spanish maritime patrol aircraft provided persistent eyes in the sky. The Indian Navy’s presence added another layer of deterrence at close range. Support also came from a Japanese P-3C working under the Combined Maritime Forces, the Seychelles Air Force and Somali maritime agencies — a reminder that the ocean’s problems rarely respect national borders and neither can the solutions.

Photos released by the EU mission show a grey warship closing on the low, weathered dhow — the kind of fishing and transport vessel that, in recent years, has often been seized by pirates and repurposed as a floating base to strike farther out to sea. The dhow in this case was not broadcasting AIS, the tracking signal required for safe navigation, complicating surveillance. Atalanta had earlier assessed it was “highly likely” the vessel was the same Iranian dhow hijacked on October 28, believed to be the Issamohamadi.

Evidence collected aboard both the tanker and the dhow will feed into legal proceedings, European officials said. Somali federal authorities and Puntland State’s administration are cooperating with international partners as the search for the fugitive pirates continues along a rugged coastline long exploited by maritime criminals and smugglers.

A familiar menace finds new openings

To many in the shipping industry, the incident felt like a throwback to darker years. A decade ago, Somali piracy surged to the point that insurers hiked premiums, crews bolted concertina wire to decks, and sailors learned the cruel arithmetic of hostage-taking. A massive naval effort, onboard security teams and better reporting mechanisms beat that wave back. The lull, however, has been fraying since late 2023.

Risk consultants at EOS Risk Group said the same pirate cell tried to hijack the Stolt Aphrodite on November 3 and the fishing vessel Intertuna Tres on November 2 — attempts that signaled a sustained campaign rather than a one-off strike. In 2024 alone, Atalanta logged dozens of incidents, including the dramatic liberation of the MV Ruen by the Indian Navy after three months in captivity, and the release of MV Abdullah following a reported ransom payment.

What changed? Several currents converged. Instability in Yemen and Houthi threats to shipping have pushed some traffic away from the Red Sea and Suez, dispersing ships deeper into the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope. That longer route stretches naval coverage and creates windows for opportunistic attacks. Meanwhile, the Horn of Africa is wrestling with its own upheavals — political tensions, the long fight against al-Shabaab, and the economic bruises of climate shocks — undermining coastal livelihoods and governance, the ripest conditions for pirate networks to regroup.

UK Maritime Trade Operations, the British naval liaison that tracks commercial shipping incidents, has recorded at least three piracy-related events off Somalia this month alone. It’s not 2011 again, but mariners are paying attention.

Somalia’s struggle, and the long road to maritime security

Somalia’s parliament recently passed anti-piracy legislation, a step long urged by international partners. The country received $4.5 billion in debt relief last year, a watershed in its slow economic reconstruction after decades of conflict. Yet the state’s maritime institutions remain thin, and Somali authorities still rely heavily on foreign militaries to keep vital waters safe and critical port infrastructure functioning.

Officials in Mogadishu and Garowe have pledged to work closely with Atalanta and other naval coalitions on prosecutions and intelligence sharing. Those joint efforts can be painstaking: building a case from ocean to courtroom involves chain-of-custody protocols, clear jurisdiction, and willing courts — hurdles that once hampered outcomes during the last piracy surge. This time, partners say, the legal lanes are better paved.

Shipping urged: register, harden, report

Even as warships made headlines this week, naval commanders emphasized what doesn’t: the quiet, daily routines that make attacks less likely. Atalanta urged merchant vessels and other high-risk ships transiting the region to enroll with the Maritime Security Centre’s Voluntary Registration Scheme. That basic act — telling the watchkeepers who you are and where you’re heading — speeds monitoring and alerts.

Security advisers continue to recommend layered defenses for ships moving through the High Risk Area: vigilant watchkeeping, controlled lighting at night, water cannons and razor wire on approaches, citadels for crews, and, where appropriate, armed guards. The best defense at sea is usually time — to see, to call, to maneuver — and layered security buys it.

What this operation signals

For Europe and India, the operation is a proof point of what multinational naval cooperation can still deliver in a crowded, contested ocean. For pirates, it’s a warning shot that the open sea is patrolled, even far from shore. And for the families of 24 crew members, it’s relief — the kind that rarely makes it into statistics or policy briefings but lingers in phone calls home.

There is a broader question for the rest of us, sitting far from the sea lanes that carry our fuel, our food, our phones: how much attention can the world spare for the slow-burn work of maritime security amid louder crises? Every time a hijacking is foiled, we are reminded that commerce is not frictionless. It rides on routines hard-won by mariners, watched over by aircrews with long shifts and low horizons, and backed by diplomats stitching together cooperation across flag states and coastlines.

Today’s victory was measured in restraint — a boarding without gunfire, a crew declared “safe and free,” a hijacked mother ship seized near a bleak stretch of shore. The next test will be whether law and governance can hold the line as firmly as the warships did.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.