A sanctioned oil tanker allegedly involved in moving Iranian petroleum products has been seized off Yemen in the latest sign of a Somali piracy resurgence, with the vessel reportedly being steered toward Somalia.
Six armed men boarded the Eritrea-flagged Sibu 1 on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the tanker in December, alleging that it was part of a shadow fleet used to help Iranian petroleum products circumvent U.S. restrictions.
- Advertisement -
The Sibu 1 was at least the 13th vessel attacked this year off Somalia or in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway separating Somalia and Yemen, according to International Maritime Bureau data and UKMTO reports.
By comparison, the IMB recorded only five such attacks throughout 2025.
Somali pirates carried out hundreds of attacks between 2008 and 2014, triggering a security crisis across the western Indian Ocean and costing the global economy billions of dollars. Ransoms alone accounted for hundreds of millions of dollars.
A sustained international security operation largely brought that wave of piracy to an end. Another series of hijackings in 2023 and 2024 likewise subsided after naval forces mounted a strong response.
Experts, however, warn that the underlying economic and security problems in Somalia remain unresolved, leaving conditions in which piracy can return.
“The piracy was always suppressed. It was never really fully eradicated,” said Timothy Walker, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
Analysts have linked the latest increase in piracy to consequences of the Iran war. Higher oil prices could make tankers more lucrative targets, while naval resources once dedicated to counter-piracy operations have been redirected toward the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea amid threats from Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen.
Some researchers have also pointed to signs of cooperation between the Houthis and Somali pirates, following the seizure of several vessels near Yemen’s coast.
Jay Bahadur, a researcher and co-director of the Scopus Insights consultancy, said the capture of an Iran-linked tanker such as the Sibu 1 made him highly doubtful that the Houthis were behind the recent hijackings. He said, however, that Somali pirates appeared to be receiving assistance from Yemeni nationals, including networks involved in arms trafficking.
“You’re having these traditional, longstanding relationships built around arms trafficking and human smuggling built up between Yemeni criminal actors and Somali criminal actors,” he said.
Additional reporting by Natalia Chumakova Editing by Gareth Jones
