Three vessels have been seized off the coast of Somalia within the space of a week, raising alarm about a resurgence of piracy around the Horn of Africa at a moment when international naval forces are heavily committed elsewhere. The hijackings follow a pattern that analysts warn could signal a sustained return of organised maritime crime in one of the world's most strategically vital shipping corridors.

The motor tanker Honour 25, carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, was the first to be taken, on 21 April. A dhow was seized the following day, and the cement carrier Sward — which had departed Suez, Egypt, on 13 April, bound for Mombasa, Kenya — was captured on 26 April, approximately six nautical miles from the Somali port town of Garacad in the autonomous region of Puntland. The Sward's 17 crew members, 15 Syrians and two Indians, remain aboard alongside an estimated 20 armed pirates, including an English- and Arabic-speaking interpreter described by security sources as effectively running negotiations with the ship's owner. A supply of khat — a narcotic stimulant widely used in the Horn of Africa region — was reportedly delivered to the vessel by boat, driven some 150 miles from the inland city of Galkayo, suggesting the pirates have an organised land-based support network and may be preparing for a prolonged standoff. The Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean, the tracking arm of the EU's naval force, said all three incidents remain unresolved and urged vessels to maintain heightened vigilance within 150 nautical miles of the Somali coastline between Mogadishu and Hafun.

Somali piracy first surged in the late 2000s, peaking in 2011 with 212 attacks, before an international naval coalition suppressed it to a handful of incidents per year from 2014 onward. Incidents began climbing again in 2023. Researchers say the current uptick is no coincidence: international navies have diverted significant resources to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to counter attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen, who have been targeting commercial shipping near the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait — the chokepoint through which vessels must pass to exit the Red Sea. At the same time, Puntland's Emirati-backed security forces are overstretched. Jethro Norman of the Danish Institute for International Studies notes that today's pirate networks are better equipped than their predecessors, with GPS systems, satellite communications, and hijacked dhow motherships that allow them to operate hundreds of miles offshore.

The latest hijackings compound pressures already battering global shipping. The near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow passage between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula through which a vast share of global oil and fertiliser inputs flow — has disrupted supply chains well beyond energy markets, with cascading consequences for food security, particularly across Africa. The triple burden of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, tensions at Hormuz, and now resurgent Somali piracy is creating a compounding crisis for international maritime trade. With the Horn of Africa sitting at the junction of these pressures, and with pirate networks evidently testing gaps in naval coverage, maritime security experts say the window to respond is narrow before opportunistic attacks become a sustained campaign.