Shadow fleets, weapons, and 22 Indian sailors: How the West Asia conflict revived Somali piracy

“One confirmed hijack was reported in this period…On 20 August the tanker Seamull broadcasted a distress call after being approached by an unauthorized craft. Six armed individuals subsequently boarded the vessel, seized control from the crew, and altered its heading south toward Somalia,” read an update from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre. 

Another Cameroon-flagged cargo ship was hijacked by pirates off Somalia’s Puntland coast on August 17 with six Indians among its 10 crew members. Details about the incidents remain scarce and a statement is awaited from the Ministry of External Affairs. Senior government officials told news agency PTI that the Indian crew members were safe according to the latest information.

Piracy on the rise?

According to the UKMTO, commercial traffic has remained “relatively steady in the Gulf of Aden” despite the incident on Thursday. But the agency said in its latest bulletin that six merchant vessels remain captive after being hijacked between April 21 and August 20. An assessment shared by the Center for Maritime Strategy in July added that there had been “at least 17 piracy-related incidents” led by Somali mariners in the first five months of 2026.

• MT HONOUR 25, Palau-flagged product tanker: Hijacked 21 April 2026 off the northern Somali coast while en route to Mogadishu with oil products. 
• MV SWARD, Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged general cargo ship: Hijacked 26 April 2026 off the northern Somali coast while bound for Mombasa with fertilizer.  
• MT EUREKA, Togo-flagged product tanker: Hijacked 2 May 2026 while anchored off Qana Port, Shabwa, Yemen with oil products.  
• MT ASANA, Tanzania-flagged product/chemical tanker: Hijacked 17 July 2026 approximately 65 NM southwest of Mukalla, Yemen with oil products.  
• MV LUTUF, Cameroon-flagged dry bulk/mini bulker 1: Hijacked 17 August 2026 off the coast of Somalia. Incident remains under investigation.  
• MT SEAMULL (SIBU 1), Eritrea-flagged tanker. Hijacked 20 August 2026 off the coast of Somalia in the IRTC. Incident remains under investigation. 

“At least three active pirate groups are believed to be launching coordinated operations from Somalia and are increasingly targeting vessels sailing hundreds of miles into the Indian Ocean, in contrast to the previous era of Somali piracy in which attacks which were largely contained to neighboring waterways (one shipped hijacked in May was taken only 2-3 nautical miles from an oil terminal off the coast of Yemen),” the American think tank quoted its Senior National Security Advisor Matthew Reisener as saying in July. .

The piracy problem remains concentrated along the Somali coast — with UKMTO tagging the Gulf of Aden as a “substantial threat” zone. It also tagged the Somali Coast and Somali Basin with a ‘moderate’ warning. Other areas such as the Strait of Hormuz remain under “severe” threat because of the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran.

Iranian shadow tanker and ship carrying weapons 

The newly hijacked MT Sibu 1 is a Eritrea-flagged oil products tanker with 20 crew members.  Officials told PTI that there were 16 Indians and at least one person each from Syria, Sudan and Iraq on board. A New York Times report added that it was a suspected Iranian shadow fleet tanker that had routinely exported oil around the world. The publication quoted TankerTrackers.com (a company that monitors global oil shipping) to add that MT Sibu 1 has frequently ferried fuel to an oil terminal in the Yemeni port of Ras Isa that is controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.

Meanwhile the LUTUF was reportedly carrying Turkish weapons and equipment bound for a military training facility in Mogadishu when it was seized on Monday. The 10-member crew included six Indians, one Turkish national, one Georgian and two Serbian security guards. Eight pirates reportedly took the vessel toward the Nugaal coast near Garmaal in Puntland’s Dangoroyo district.

According to an AP report, the ship owned by Polar Movement Shipping was taken by eight pirates, believed to be members of a group previously involved in the hijacking of the M/V Sward on April 26. A Somali official told AP that two Turkish-owned vessels later approached the hijacked ship, while Turkish helicopters and drones monitored the area.

A small boat carrying two men had reportedly approached the vessel and delivered khat, a stimulant commonly chewed in Somalia, on Tuesday, However an airstrike followed after the boat returned to shore, killing four men and wounding two others. The circumstances of the strike — including who carried it out and whether those killed were involved in the hijacking — couldn’t be verified and the status of LUTUF and its crew remains unclear.

$18 billion strain on global economy

Somali piracy has fallen sharply over the past decade as global entities collaborated on aggressive counterpiracy operations. Groupings such as NATO, the European Union and the Combined Maritime Task Force had worked in tandem with the fledgling Somali government, and even geopolitical rivals such as Russia and China — with overwhelming success and only two successful hijackings between 2013 and 2023. 

To put this in perspective, pirates had claimed more than over $400 million in ransom payments and reportedly conducted over 1,000 attacks from 2005 to 2012. According to the ‘Pirates of Somalia: Ending the Threat, Rebuilding a Nation’ report launched by the World Bank in 2013, Somali piracy had cost the global economy an estimated $18 billion every year at its peak.

US-Israeli war against Iran marks turning point

The ‘revival’ appears deeply linked to the ongoing US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Both the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz have become critical flashpoints as Tehran and the allied Houthis in Yemen launch attacks. Global navies that once defended piracy off the Horn of Africa are now being redirected towards the growing conflict in West Asia. Simultaneously, ships looking for alternative routes have given pirates a lucrative window of opportunity.

According to an analysis shared by the Center for Maritime Strategy, mere restoration of normalcy in the region will not end the newly revived piracy problem. Reisener opined that the growing operational capabilities of Somali pirates may keep the threat alive. The country’s fragile government also lacks the means to respond, while harsh economic conditions drive many towards piracy.