Three Vessels Hijacked Off Somalia in a Week, Raising Piracy Fears

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A string of hijackings off Somalia’s coast has revived one of the region’s most unsettling security threats, with three vessels seized in a single week and fresh concern rippling through the shipping world.

The most recent incident involved the commercial vessel Sward, taken on April 26, just days after pirates captured the oil tanker Honour 25 on April 21. The tanker was carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean, the European Union’s naval monitoring center.

“All incidents remain ongoing,” the center said in a statement. “Vessels operating in the area are strongly advised to maintain a high level of vigilance, particularly within 150 nautical miles between Mogadishu and Xaafuun.”

Somali piracy exploded in the late 2000s and reached its height in 2011, when EU naval data recorded 212 attacks. At the time, pirate groups grew increasingly audacious, striking ships as far as 2,270 nautical miles from Somalia’s coast, deep in the Indian Ocean.

An international naval coalition later pushed the menace back, cutting attacks to only a handful each year from 2014 onward. But since 2023, the trend has turned upward again.

The renewed threat comes as the global shipping sector is already under strain from instability near the Strait of Hormuz and attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen around the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Vessels must move through these waters to leave the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest commercial corridors, and many also route around the Horn of Africa.

Sward, a cement carrier, left Egypt’s Suez port on April 13 and was bound for Mombasa, Kenya, when it was seized roughly six nautical miles off Garacad, according to Puntland State security officials.

The ship had 17 crew members aboard, including 15 Syrians and two Indians.

After the hijacking, which occurred shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, the pirates steered the vessel toward the Somali shoreline and anchored it offshore near Garacad.

Officials said six armed men and an unarmed interpreter who spoke English and Arabic were the first to board the ship.

“He is speaking with the crew and is also in contact with the ship owner,” one security official said, referring to the interpreter.

By Tuesday morning, four additional armed men had come aboard, increasing the number of pirates on the vessel to 20, officials said.

Jethro Norman, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the hijackers appear to be exploiting the fact that international naval forces have devoted much of their attention to the Red Sea campaign against Houthi attacks, while Puntland State security forces are stretched by pressure on both land and sea.

“Pirate networks are once again testing their capabilities, and they are better equipped than the previous generation,” Norman said. “GPS, satellite communications, and hijacked boats used as mother ships allow them to operate hundreds of miles offshore.”

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