Piracy Observer Says Somali Incidents Rising as Navies Stretched

The world’s top maritime piracy observer said incidents off the coast of Somalia are on the rise again after a pair of fresh attacks this week — as two major regional conflicts stretch naval forces in the area thin.

Yemen’s Houthis said last month that they would block Saudi Arabia’s ports and targeted several vessels, forcing many ships to avoid the area. At the same time, the Iran war brought chaos to the industry with dozens of freighters attacked in and around the Persian Gulf. (Editor’s note: This article was published by Bloomberg on Aug. 21).

Naval authorities this week reported that a pair of ships were attacked by Somali pirates, adding to previous concerns about a rising number of incidents this year. Back in 2008-10, they targeted hundreds of vessels, forcing some owners to sail all the way around Africa to stay safe.

“While naval assets are in the region, other maritime security threats are taking precedence, due to which opportunity has potentially arisen for the Somali pirates, who had been successfully deterred and disrupted for over a decade,” said Cyrus Mody, a director at the International Maritime Bureau, which maintains a global piracy database.

On Thursday, attackers hijacked an oil-products tanker, the Sibu 1, in the Gulf of Aden before redirecting it toward Somalia. That incident came shortly after the Cameroon-flagged cargo ship, the Lutuf, was hijacked.

Mody said the risk of attacks off the Somali coast remains much lower than in 2009 and 2010, when attacks frequently occurred far into the Indian Ocean and targeted much larger merchant vessels.

Still, the incidents add another risk around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical chokepoint connecting the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and a key route for global shipping.

EUNAVFOR ASPIDES, an EU military operation protecting commercial vessels in the region, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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