Suspected pirates steer cargo vessel toward Somalia, Hiiraan Online reports

Tuesday April 28, 2026

A cargo ship is seen in a port in central Mogadishu [File: Ed Ram/Getty Images]

Suspected pirates have seized a cargo vessel off Somalia, according to officials and maritime security groups, in what appears to be the latest sign that insecurity is returning to waters once notorious for such attacks.

The reported hijacking on Monday was the second off Somalia in less than a week. The target was the Sward, a St Kitts and Nevis-flagged ship carrying cement from Suez, Egypt, to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.

The incident comes at a time when shipping lanes are already under intense strain, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively blocked during the United States-Israeli war on Iran.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the Sward was taken 6 nautical miles (11km) northeast of the Somali coastal town of Garacad.

The British maritime security group Vanguard said the vessel’s 15-member crew included two Indian nationals and 13 Syrians.

“The vessel is currently assessed to be under pirate control and proceeding toward the Somali coastline,” it said. “The Puntland State Maritime Police Force has been notified.”

An operations officer with that force told The Associated Press news agency that nine pirates had boarded the Sward and forced their way into control of the ship.

“The ship is currently under the control of armed men, and we are monitoring the situation,” he said.

For years, Somali pirates terrorised ships along the Horn of Africa nation’s long coastline, especially from 2008 to 2018. Their attacks declined sharply as international naval patrols increased and maritime security improved.

That trend began to reverse in late 2023, when anti-piracy patrols were scaled back and resources were redirected toward countering Houthi attacks on shipping near the Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow passage linking the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Just last Wednesday, an oil tanker that had departed a Red Sea port in the breakaway region of North Western State of Somalia was seized in waters off Puntland State while en route to Mogadishu.

In November, armed assailants using machineguns and rocket launchers attacked a commercial tanker off the coast of Mogadishu.

The shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, has interrupted the movement of a significant share of the petroleum that keeps the global economy running.

As a result, some ships have been redirected through the Suez Canal or sent on the far longer voyage around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to reach markets in Asia and Europe. Some oil shipments from Saudi Arabia have also been rerouted by pipeline to the Red Sea, avoiding the strait altogether.