Last Thursday, the tanker SIBU 1 was sailing about 250 kilometers east of the Yemeni city of Al Mukalla when it was surprised by six armed men who took control of the vessel, according to the British Navy center responsible for commercial security in the area (UKMTO). The ship, which is sanctioned by the United States for being part of the ghost fleet with which Iran exports oil to evade sanctions, immediately changed its course and headed towards Somalia.
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Just three days earlier, a cargo ship, which had departed from Turkey bound for Somalia and was believed to be carrying weapons, had been attacked and hijacked by another eight individuals off the coast of the city of Mareeyo, in the autonomous Somali state of Puntland, according to UKMTO. Unlike previous similar incidents, this time the boarding was met with bombings in Somali waters attributed to Turkish forces, which left at least four dead and have generated notable local tension.
The hijacking of both vessels takes place amid the greatest surge in Somali piracy in the last decade, fueled by the disruption of maritime traffic in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz amid the Gulf crisis, domestic instability in Somalia, and the persistent economic grievances of its population. The upsurge began to raise alarm as early as April, but its current scope confirms the growing capabilities of the groups behind this activity and the difficulties in stopping its proliferation.
In the first half of 2026, the International Maritime Bureau recorded 38 incidents of piracy and armed robbery worldwide, the lowest level since 1992, but Somali pirates, responsible for 94% of the hijackings, were the major exception. Since April, they have captured six ships, held off the country’s coasts while their ransoms are negotiated, and more than 100 crew members, exposed to shortages of food and water and under the threat of violence, according to the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Who exactly is behind these actions, however, remains unclear. Military missions against piracy have considered that there are two active groups, one operating near the Somali coast and another further offshore. Local media, citing security sources, have instead pointed out that the latest actions have been carried out by young people from the same clan from the interior of the coastal city of Garacad, in Puntland, organized around one of the ships hijacked in April.
Nevertheless, the complexity of some of the actions undertaken this year shows that Somali pirates are more and better armed and equipped than in the past and operate with a sophistication, both offshore and on land, significantly higher, according to an analysis published in July by the Maritime Strategy Center think tank. These greater capabilities help explain, in part, why they are conducting boardings increasingly far from the Somali coast and under more adverse weather conditions.
Their incursions into Yemeni waters, including the hijacking in May of a ship anchored off an oil terminal in the east of the country, have also fueled suspicion that Somali pirates have the help of third parties. Puntland authorities have indicated that an outside actor they have not revealed has been involved in their latest actions. And a report from Yemeni military intelligence, obtained by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, directly points to Houthi rebels.
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One of the main factors considered to be favoring this surge in piracy in Somalia is the diversion of military forces, which previously fought this activity off the Horn of Africa, to naval campaigns confronting the Houthis in the Red Sea and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. The disruption of traffic through these two routes has also increased maritime traffic off the Somali coasts.
The reactivation of piracy coincides in parallel with a period of severe internal turmoil in Somalia, where the federal government remains mired in a deep constitutional crisis amid growing challenges from regional executives to its authority. In Puntland, where piracy is concentrated, security forces are also stretched thin by their operations against the local branch of the Islamic State (ISIS). And the lack of economic opportunities, including due to the proliferation of illegal foreign fishing, remains unresolved.
The origins of modern piracy in Somalia are usually placed in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the state and the outbreak of civil war. However, it was not until 2007, after a deep economic and security crisis in Puntland, that piracy began to expand. Only a broad international deployment, greater security on ships, and local mobilization allowed it to be contained in subsequent years.
Drone attack
In Puntland, the situation has worsened even more in recent days because, after the hijacking of the ship believed to be carrying Turkish weapons, a drone killed four people off the coast of the Nugaal region. Initially, the information that emerged about the attack, attributed to Turkey although the country has not commented on it, indicated that the victims were pirates. But later local accounts claim that three of them were actually fishermen and that only the fourth was in contact with the hijackers.
The Puntland government has stated that bombings against fishermen occurred last Tuesday and Thursday, although it attributed them to international ships, and threatened to reduce its cooperation in the fight against piracy if what happened is not clarified. The federal government did not acknowledge until Sunday that it had been informed of the attack in advance, but questioned that the fatalities were civilian fishermen.
The lack of transparency surrounding the incident has again focused attention on a cooperation agreement signed by Somalia and Turkey in 2024 that envisaged Ankara helping to train a Somali navy and protect its territorial waters. Local media note, however, that Mogadishu has never revealed how many attacks Turkish forces have carried out nor under what rules. Unlike the federal government, the Puntland government maintains strong ties with the United Arab Emirates, Turkey’s rival for influence in the region.
