Nine armed men boarded a cement-laden cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on April 26, 2026, dragging it toward the pirate-prone shores near Garacad and marking the third hijacking in the region in less than a week. The vessel, flagged to St. Kitts and Nevis, had been sailing from Egypt to the Kenyan port of Mombasa when it was taken, according to a Puntland maritime police official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The seizure followed the hijacking of the oil tanker M/T HONOUR 25 on April 21 and a dhow grabbed on April 25, a rapid-fire sequence that has jolted international maritime authorities and raised alarms along one of the world’s most critical shipping corridors.
Three hijackings in six days
The cluster began on April 21 when armed individuals took control of the M/T HONOUR 25 (IMO 1099735) between the coastal towns of Hafun and Bandarbeyla, at coordinates roughly 08°57’N, 050°34’E. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations confirmed that unauthorized persons boarded the tanker and steered it south within Somali territorial waters.
Four days later, on April 25, a dhow was hijacked approximately 10 nautical miles off Dhinowda, at 07°00’N, 049°00’E. Regional reporting indicates the small vessel was moved from near-shore waters into deeper ocean, a pattern consistent with so-called mothership tactics, in which pirates use a commandeered boat as a floating base to launch attacks on larger commercial ships farther from land.
The cement carrier was seized the following day at 07°13’N, 049°32’E, according to a Maritime Security Centre bulletin that logged all three events. The ship was carrying bulk construction material along a route long regarded as essential for East African trade.
A tactic from the past resurfaces
The mothership approach is not new. It defined the peak of Somali piracy between 2008 and 2012, when hijacking gangs used captured fishing boats and dhows to extend their reach hundreds of miles into the Indian Ocean, targeting supertankers and container ships. A massive international naval response, combined with armed guards aboard commercial vessels, eventually drove successful hijackings to near zero by 2014.
But the tactic has been creeping back. In late March 2026, EU Naval Force Operation Atalanta tracked a Piracy Active Group linked to the hijacking of the Iranian-flagged dhow ALWASEEMI 786. EU NAVFOR described the group as actively attempting to generate mothership capability. Atalanta forces ultimately liberated the ALWASEEMI after closing distance on the vessel, cooperating with the Somali Coast Guard, the Somali Navy, and Puntland Maritime Police during the operation, according to EU NAVFOR’s operational summary.
That the late April hijackings followed so quickly suggests the liberation of the ALWASEEMI did not dismantle the broader network, or that multiple groups are now operating simultaneously off Puntland’s coast.
Why piracy is returning now
Several factors have converged to create an opening for Somali pirates. Since late 2023, Houthi militants in Yemen have launched persistent attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing Western and coalition navies to redirect warships toward that threat. The redeployment thinned the patrol coverage that had kept Somali piracy suppressed for nearly a decade, a shift that security analysts have repeatedly flagged as a vulnerability.
Recognizing the growing risk, the EU Council on March 30, 2026, updated the mandates of both Operation Atalanta and the related Operation ASPIDES, reinforcing the bloc’s commitment to counter-piracy and broader maritime security off Somalia. That mandate refresh came less than a month before the current wave of hijackings, suggesting the threat was already escalating when European policymakers acted.
Conditions on land also play a role. Puntland’s semi-autonomous government has limited resources to police its long coastline, and economic hardship in coastal communities has historically made piracy recruitment easier. While no official body has publicly linked the April attackers to specific local networks, the geography of the seizures, all clustered off Puntland’s northeastern shore, fits the pattern of earlier piracy waves that drew recruits from towns like Garacad, Eyl, and Hobyo.
What remains unknown
Critical details are still missing. No official body has publicly confirmed the condition or nationalities of the crews aboard the cement carrier, the M/T HONOUR 25, or the hijacked dhow. No ransom demands have been reported, and no verified imagery of the seized vessels under pirate control has surfaced. Whether the three attacks were carried out by a single coordinated network or by separate opportunistic groups is unresolved. EU NAVFOR identified a specific Piracy Active Group in the ALWASEEMI case but has not drawn a direct organizational link to the late April seizures.
The insurance and shipping industry response also remains unclear. In past piracy surges, war-risk premiums for vessels transiting Somali waters spiked dramatically, adding tens of thousands of dollars per voyage and prompting some operators to reroute. Whether underwriters have already adjusted rates or whether major shipping lines are diverting traffic further offshore has not been publicly reported.
In previous hijacking waves, shipping companies and governments often withheld sensitive information while negotiations were underway, both to protect hostages and to avoid incentivizing copycat attacks. A similar information blackout may explain the current silence.
A corridor under pressure again
The converging evidence from official maritime alerts, EU NAVFOR releases, and regional reporting supports a clear conclusion: pirate groups operating off Somalia’s northeastern coast have carried out at least three successful hijackings in rapid succession and appear to be reviving mothership tactics that once made these waters among the most dangerous on Earth.
For the thousands of commercial vessels that transit the western Indian Ocean each month, carrying everything from crude oil to construction materials, the calculus has shifted. The corridor between the Horn of Africa and the Kenyan coast is once again a place where armed men in skiffs can dictate the terms of passage. How quickly international naval forces, Somali authorities, and the shipping industry respond will determine whether this is a contained flare-up or the opening chapter of a new piracy crisis.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
