Somali piracy resurges after three vessels hijacked in one week

Mohamed Gabobe in Mogadishu and Rachel SavageThursday April 30, 2026

The motor vessel Sward was hijacked on Sunday. Photograph: EU naval force Operation ATALANTA

A fresh wave of hijackings off Somalia has jolted one of the world’s most sensitive shipping corridors, with three vessels seized in a week and memories of the country’s pirate era suddenly back in focus.

The merchant vessel Sward was captured on 26 April, just one day after a dhow was taken. Those incidents came after the 21 April hijacking of Honour 25, a motor tanker carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO), the tracking service run by the EU’s naval force.

“All incidents remain ongoing …,” the MSCIO said in a statement on Monday. “Vessels operating in the area are strongly advised to maintain heightened vigilance … particularly within 150NM [nautical miles] of the Somali coast between Mogadishu and Hafun where feasible.”

Piracy off Somalia surged in the late 2000s and reached a high point in 2011, when EU naval force data recorded 212 attacks. At the height of the threat, pirate crews were bold enough to strike thousands of miles from shore, raiding ships as far as 2,270 miles off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean.

An international naval coalition later helped push the attacks down sharply, leaving only a handful a year from 2014. But since 2023, the trend has turned upward once again.

The renewed danger is landing at a difficult moment for global shipping. Traffic has already been disrupted by Iran’s near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz and by attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen near the narrow Bab el Mandeb strait. Vessels must pass these chokepoints to leave the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, before many continue around the Horn of Africa.

Sward, a cement carrier, departed Egypt’s port of Suez on 13 April and was heading for Mombasa, Kenya, when pirates intercepted it about 6 nautical miles (11km) from the Somali port town of Garacad. According to three security officials from Puntland State, the autonomous Somali region, the ship was carrying 17 crew members — 15 Syrians and two Indians.

Following the hijacking shortly after 8pm on Sunday, the pirates guided the vessel toward the coast and anchored it in a secluded area near Garacad. Six armed men and an unarmed interpreter who speaks English and Arabic then came aboard.

“He’s not only speaking with the crew but also dealing with the owner of the ship,” one of the security officials said. A second official said: “The interpreter is in charge.”

By Tuesday morning, four additional armed men had boarded Sward, bringing the total number of pirates on the vessel to 20, according to the officials.

Jethro Norman, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the latest seizures appeared to reflect an opening created by shifting naval priorities and local pressure points. International forces have redirected resources toward the Red Sea to confront Houthi attacks, while Puntland State’s Emirati-backed security forces are stretched thin, he said.

Norman said: “Pirate networks are testing the waters again and they are better equipped than the last generation. GPS, satellite communications and hijacked dhow motherships let them operate hundreds of miles offshore.”

A third Puntland State security official said a shipment of khat, a narcotic stimulant widely used across the Horn of Africa, was taken by small boat to the pirates on the cement carrier on Tuesday morning. The khat had been driven about 150 miles from the inland city of Galkayo on Monday, a move that suggests the hijackers have support on land and may be preparing for a prolonged standoff at sea.