Costly comeback: Piracy returns to Horn of Africa after years of decline

An aerial view of Port of Mogadishu in Somalia. [Getty Images]

Somali pirates continue to cause havoc off the Horn of Africa Coast, carrying out brazen attacks and hijacking foreign-flagged ocean-going vessels for ransom.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says that as of June 2026, Somali pirates continued to hold three merchant vessels and 44 seafarers captive.

The first ship, Motor Tanker Honour 25 (a Palau-flagged product/oil tanker), was hijacked on April 21, 2026, off the coast of Somalia with a crew complement of 17, including 10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians and an Indian, a Sri Lankan and another from Myanmar.

And on April 26, MV Sward, a St Kitts and Nevis-flagged carrying general cargo and cement and destined for the Mombasa port, was hijacked near Garacad, Somalia. To date, its crew of 15 people is still being held captive.

In May, a Togolese-flagged oil tanker, MT Eureka, was also captured by pirates off the Gulf of Aden, off Yemen, and subsequently taken toward Somalia. The whereabouts of the unknown number of crew who are believed to be Egyptians remain unknown, but they are believed to be under the custody of Somali pirates.

Multiple maritime security sources indicate that the pirates are demanding a ransom of between Sh388.4 million and Sh1.3 billion, depending on the size of the ship and cargo, before they could release the vessels and the crew.

The long-drawn-out negotiations of the ransom are partly due to the amount demanded, ship ownership disputes and competing interests of different gangs of pirates involved.

It has emerged that Indonesia has decided to negotiate directly with pirates as families of the captives in Karachi took to the streets to demand the release of their loved ones.

Maritime consultant Andrew Mwangura, who has also studied piracy activities in the Horn of Africa for decades, says the health conditions of the captives have deteriorated.

“According to the distress videos, the captives are in handcuffs. They get one boiled rice meal per day and drink contaminated water, and those infected by a virus or diabetic are not treated,” said Mwangura.

“The condition of the captives is worsening. What is happening is no longer captivity; it is torture.”

These incidents have reignited memories of the late 2000s when piracy off the coast of Somalia was at its peak. There are fears that this key trade route is sliding back into chaos experienced before.

Although the attacks have not reached the levels of the late 2000s, experts warn that if the pirates sustain the hijacking of ships and crew, the cost of shipping through the Port of Mombasa is bound to go up.

In May 2008, the Gulf of Aden was classified as a war risk area by the Lloyds Market Association (LMA) Joint War Committee, a move that led shipping lines to introduce war risk premiums.

The premiums increased 300-fold from $500 (Sh65,000) per ship, per voyage, to up to $150,000 (Sh19.4 million) per ship, per voyage, in 2010.

The increase in cases of piracy in 2008 forced the United Nation Security Council to issue four resolutions (1816, 1838, 1846, and 1851) to facilitate an international response to piracy off the Horn of Africa.

In January 2009, a multilateral Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) was established to coordinate anti-piracy efforts. The US, NATO, European Union, regional and other naval forces took over the manning of the channel and are still patrolling near Somalia in coordination with a US-led task force.

However, security experts say these efforts were scaled down after the redeployment of international naval forces to combat the Yemen-backed Houthis and the sustained US/Israel war against Iran has created a security vacuum in the Indian Ocean for Somali pirates to start hijacking ships again.

Also, following the drop in the cases and what seems to be stabilisation of security in the channel in 2019, the majority of the shipping companies also stopped hiring private security firms that had set base in Nairobi to escort ships, exposing themselves to pirate attacks.

With the recent hijacking incidents, it has emerged that a dreaded pirates’ group in Eyl, the oldest in Somalia, still poses a threat to shipping along this route. Seven pirate groups are still operating in the waters off Somalia.

According to Mwangura, the resumption of piracy is a result of illegal fishing activities that have decimated the livelihoods of Somalis on their coast, forcing desperate men to take up arms and join pirate groups.

“These groups are now more volatile and more dangerous. They sometimes turn on each other. No releases have been confirmed by UKMTO, European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), or the International Maritime Bureau since the hijackings occurred,’’ he said.

‘’A hijacked dhow has been reported as a possible pirate mothership, but it is not included among the three primary merchant vessels with international crews,’’ Mwangura added.

He said that the current pirate situation marks a notable resurgence in Somali piracy in 2026, though activity remains far below peak levels observed over a decade ago.