A 2010 photo of armed Somali pirates standing guard on the Hobyo coastline in northeastern Somalia. Meanwhile, the Greek cargo ship MV Filitza was sailing from Kuwait to Durban, South Africa, with a cargo of fertilizer, and was anchored just off the coast of Hobyo, where it was captured by pirates after being captured about 513 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles.
Mohamed Dahir | AFP | Getty Images
Somali pirates are back in action.
Piracy in the region around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden peaked around 2010 but has subsided in recent years, thanks to prevention and enforcement efforts by the U.S. Navy and a coalition of international partners. But the Iran war, which drained U.S. resources and fueled regional instability, created conditions that allowed the infamous practice to return.
The cargo ship Lutuf was captured on August 17th by eight armed men about four nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. Another Tanzanian-flagged oil and chemical tanker, the MT Asana, was also seized by the group in the Gulf of Aden a month ago and taken to Somalia’s Puntland region.
For would-be pirates in countries currently facing drought, worsening food insecurity and reduced humanitarian aid, the economic incentives and balance of risk and reward may be too tempting to ignore. But for shipowners, this will exacerbate an already strained risk calculus as they weigh Houthi attacks, rising insurance premiums and whether to transit the area.
Ian Ralby, CEO of maritime and resource security firm IR Consilium and a maritime law and security expert, said: “The piracy issue has undoubtedly increased serious uncertainty and hardened those who have already decided to avoid the Red Sea.”
The Houthis and Somali militants have recently forged closer ties, mainly through arms transfers, training and intelligence, according to a UN report.
“If al-Shabaab and the Houthis take control of the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden, and formalize their relationship by adding Somali pirates to their extremist ranks, it will fundamentally change the dynamics of the region,” said Corey Ranslem, CEO of Dryad Global, a global maritime cybersecurity and risk intelligence firm.
“That could mean that Houthi technology, including missiles, drones and unmanned aerial vehicle capabilities, will be available to Somali pirates, increasing the risk disproportionately,” it added.
The Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, which is tracking the 2026 recurrence, recently announced in a report that pirates were demanding up to $10 million for the release of the Eureka, which was seized on May 2. The Chinese fishing boat Liaodongyu 578, which was hijacked in January, was released in March after reportedly paying a ransom of $1.2 million to $1.5 million.
A ship transits the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen on July 25, 2026.
Khaled Ziad | AFP | Getty Images
Additionally, as oil prices rise, so does the value of energy tankers moving across the ocean. That leaves pirates increasingly able to hold valuable cargo at gunpoint, said Matt Reisener, senior national security adviser at the Center for Maritime Strategy.
“Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have brought ships closer to Somalia’s coastline and piracy-prone areas, making these energy tankers extremely valuable and especially vulnerable given the high prices of oil and gas,” Reisener said.
Recent hijackings seem to confirm this, with three of the four merchant vessels seized by Somali pirates between April and July being tankers carrying oil products.
“Everyone has to do gymnastics almost every day to recalculate what the risks are,” said IR Consilium’s Larbee.
