Second engineer Syed Hussain Yousuf at his home in Karachi after being released. Javed Iqbal/CNN
The door to second engineer Syed Hussain Yousuf’s room was suddenly pounded.
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“Pirate attack!”
The sound of heavy gunfire.
Within three minutes, 12 pirates had climbed aboard the Honour 25. They pointed their guns at the crew of the diesel-carrying vessel. Everyone was ordered to head to the ship’s upper control bridge.
It was the afternoon of April 21. For five months, most of the ship’s 17 crew members had been confined to that cramped space, no more than 50 feet long, sitting in place and unable to move except when escorted to the bathroom under guard.
Somali pirates had made a comeback.
The threat, which first emerged more than 30 years ago — and evolved in the 2010s into a criminal network whose damage was estimated at $18 billion — had long been eradicated. But a combination of economic hardship and new opportunities arising particularly from the war involving Iran has revived the ambitions of Somali pirates, who have once again taken to the seas in search of millions of dollars in ransom.
The US Navy has turned its attention elsewhere, moving away from Somalia’s coastline and toward the conflict in the Persian Gulf. Attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have forced oil tankers to sail routes much closer to Somalia’s coast. Rising fuel prices have made their cargo especially valuable targets for pirates.
Somali civilians, meanwhile, are struggling with extremely difficult conditions. Soaring fuel and food prices, combined with disruptions to goods imported from Gulf countries, have dealt a severe blow this year to Somalia’s fragile economic growth.
All of these factors converged aboard the aging Honour 25, where months of tension ended in a bloody confrontation last month.
Five of the ship’s crew members did not leave the scene alive.
‘There was no barbed wire. Nothing’
The price of diesel had nearly doubled during the war. Attacks on vessels passing through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf and their surrounding waters caused insurance costs to rise to unprecedented levels.
These factors forced oil and shipping companies to make difficult, consequential decisions. Wealthier companies are diverting their voyages around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip, adding weeks to journeys and millions of dollars in extra fuel costs to avoid the Houthis and Somali pirates whose threat has hung over vessels traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. But smaller companies with tight budgets or less concern for safety are choosing to cut costs. Some are navigating the dangerous Bab al-Mandeb Strait, while others are moving closer to Somalia’s coast to avoid the Houthis based along Yemen’s shoreline.
The Honour 25 had departed from the Port of Shinas in Oman carrying 2,700 tons of diesel fuel to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
Crew member Yassir Khan knew the mission would not be safe. It was the second trip by the Pakistani crew to Mogadishu that year; the first, in January, had ended safely.
But the ship was rusty, and its engine and generators were faulty, Khan said. It also lacked all the standard systems used to protect against pirate attacks.
“There were no guards. There was no barbed wire. Nothing,” he said.
Since 2008, no ship carrying armed guards has been successfully attacked by pirates, according to Tim Walker, head of the maritime affairs project at the Institute for Security Studies, Africa.
“Ships that are hijacked do not carry guards capable of repelling pirates,” Walker said. “And the owners of those ships are likely to keep out of sight until the ransom is paid.”
Yasir Khan aboard the MT Honour before it was hijacked. Yasir Khan
‘Lock the doors’
The gunfire began shortly after 2 p.m.
Khan looked out through the small window of his room. As many as six Somali pirates, some armed with AK-47 rifles, were firing at the ship’s steel wall.
He quickly ran from the engine room, banging on the doors of the other rooms.
“Lock the doors!”
The Honour 25 was in the waters of the Gulf of Aden when the attack took place. The pirates, who arrived in two small boats, easily took control of the ship and switched off its engine.
The first three days were marked by constant intimidation. Guns were held to the crew members’ heads. They were ordered to sit and remain silent, while shots were fired into the air.
The crew pleaded with the pirates to stop shooting, Khan said.
“It is carrying 2,700 tons of diesel,” Khan said. “If you fire a shot, it could create a spark, and the ship could explode.”
More boats carrying additional pirates soon arrived, bringing their number to as many as 36, all of them Somali. Yousuf, the Honour 25’s engineer, estimated that they ranged in age from their late 20s to their late 40s. They immediately divided themselves among the ship’s areas — the pump room, engine room, bow and control section.
The crew was forced to sail the ship to the coastal fishing village of Durdura. They dropped anchor two nautical miles from the shore.
Ransom
Initial ransom demand: $7 million.
The pirates spent considerable time determining whom to approach with their demands. The crew was initially told that the Honour 25 belonged to a Somali man named Osman Shire Quud. But his name did not appear in the ship’s documents and plans.
Eventually, the pirates found the company managing the ship, Wharf Chartering, which did not respond to requests for comment. After a series of calls, the company managed to reduce the ransom to $1 million, Yousuf said.
During the first month, the crew was allowed to call their families in Pakistan once a week for five minutes. Then it became once every two weeks, and eventually once a month. The calls stopped entirely in July.
The hostages’ families mounted an intense pressure campaign, holding protests outside government offices in Karachi, Melbourne and London to draw international attention to the plight of the Honour 25 crew.
Wharf Chartering repeatedly promised that rescue operations would be carried out.
“By then, we were simply waiting,” said Mahwish, Khan’s wife. “We remained waiting for five and a half months.”
Why Somali piracy has returned
Somali piracy emerged in the early 1990s after the central government collapsed. At the time, local people formed militias to defend their coastal waters against illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping.
Gradually, the militias began hijacking ships. Somali pirates attacked 1,000 vessels and collected more than $400 million in ransom between 2005 and 2012, according to Matthew Reisener, senior national security adviser at the Center for Maritime Strategy. Authorities recorded 237 piracy incidents in 2011 alone. One particularly harrowing hijacking — and the subsequent rescue carried out by US Navy SEALs — inspired a Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks.
Somali pirates
