Iran war detours ships into Somali piracy risk as attacks rise

Nimi PrincewillSaturday May 16, 2026

An armed Somali pirate stands on the shoreline as a Greek cargo ship lies anchored off Hobyo in northeastern Somalia, in this January 2010 image after the vessel was seized by pirates. Mohamad Dahir/AFP/Getty Images

Somali pirates are once again cashing in on turmoil far beyond their waters. As war in Iran forces commercial shipping to take longer routes around Africa, vessels are drifting straight into the pirates’ traditional hunting grounds.

The escalating conflict in the Middle East has clogged traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passage for about 20% of the world’s oil, natural gas and key raw materials. To steer clear of the danger, shipping companies are rerouting around Africa’s southern tip, adding weeks to voyages and pushing more maritime traffic into the unstable Somali basin.

The detour is driving up costs by an estimated $1 million per vessel, thanks to higher fuel bills, insurance premiums and operating expenses. It has also opened the door to a piracy revival that threatens to undo years of relative calm along Somalia’s coast.

With more ships passing through the area, pirate groups have launched a string of hijackings in recent weeks, an escalation that has set off fresh alarm across the shipping industry.

Wave of hijackings triggers alarm

In a May 12 advisory, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said Somali pirates were holding at least three vessels: two oil tankers and a general cargo/cement carrier.

The UKMTO, which issues maritime security warnings to shipping companies, said the ships were taken between April 21 and May 2. One was seized off the coast of Yemen and later steered toward Somalia.

Somalia shares a maritime border with Yemen.

As a result, the agency said the “piracy threat level remains severe” along the Somali coast and in the basin beyond, waters that were once notorious as the world’s main piracy flashpoint during the late 2000s.

Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since the early 1990s, creating the conditions for piracy to take root. The problem deepened when shipping firms began paying ransoms that grew from small sums into multimillion-dollar payouts.

At its height in 2011, Somali piracy reached a record 237 incidents and cost the global economy $7 billion. More than 3,800 mariners were attacked that year with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, a grim record that experts now fear could be re-emerging.

In January, the ICC International Maritime Bureau reported only a handful of incidents off Somalia in 2025. It said then that “the lack of a broader resurgence in Somali piracy continues to reflect the strong deterrent effect of sustained naval presence.”

But the European Union’s naval force, Operation Atalanta, acknowledged the recent uptick in an update last month. The force said it had successfully “liberated” an Iranian-flagged vessel off Somalia after forcing pirates who had hijacked the dhow to abandon it.

After nearly 20 years of patrolling the area, the force urged ships passing through to “maintain heightened vigilance” and report any suspicious activity.

‘Opportunism’ and a Houthi alliance

Somali lawmaker Mohamed Dini said the piracy rebound reflects both outside conflict and Somalia’s internal weakness.

“Recent piracy incidents stem from opportunism, with shifting international maritime shipping routes driven by geopolitical crises,” he told CNN.

He said the current fighting in the Middle East “gives them (the pirates) a pretext to remobilize,” and warned that pirate networks are also building ties with Yemen’s Houthi forces, who have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in support of Hamas in its war with Israel.

Beyond those external factors, Dini said Somalia’s long-running instability has left its coastline exposed, weakening state institutions and lowering the risks for pirate groups.

The people behind the latest attacks have not been identified, but previous ship seizures have often involved young Somalis from impoverished communities as well as armed extremists linked to global terror networks.

The European Union Naval Force told CNN on Friday it “believes that three pirate action groups are active in the northern part of Somalia,” and that the groups “are resourced with land elements, to provide support, and sea elements.”

A security vacuum

Manu Lekunze, an international relations lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, said the war in Iran has created the kind of security gap that piracy thrives on. Naval fleets that once concentrated on stopping pirate attacks have been reassigned to escort cargo ships through the Strait of Hormuz, he told CNN.

“The war in Iran has compelled certain states that would otherwise have been focused on policing Africa’s Western Indian Ocean to prioritize a potential multinational force to open the Straits of Hormuz,” Lekunze said.

“Redeployment from the region to concentrate forces in the Persian Gulf has created opportunities, activating networks that can… execute specific pirate missions.”

The EU’s naval force, however, said the conflict in the Middle East has not changed its anti-piracy mission.

“Atalanta assets have not been modified due to the current international situation, we keep our assets the same as in previous months taking into consideration operational needs,” the agency told CNN.

“Atalanta does not work alone to deter piracy; we coordinate with international partners in the area, including Somali authorities, to repress piracy,” it added.