Rising Risk of Somali Pirate Attacks Fuels Maritime Insecurity Off East Africa

ADF STAFF

Increasing attacks by Somali pirates are exacerbating global shipping and fueling maritime insecurity around East Africa.

After a six-year lull in major pirate attacks, there have been more than 20 attempted hijackings since November, Reuters reported. The raids are heightening risks and adding insurance costs onto shipping companies also contending with repeated attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia in the Red Sea and other regional waters.

Two Somali gang members told Reuters they were taking advantage of the Houthi distraction to get back into piracy.

“They took this chance because the international naval forces that operate off the coast of Somalia reduced their operations,” a pirate financier who goes by the alias Ismail Isse, told Reuters.

The Indian Navy in March rescued the Maltese-flagged Ruen and 17 hostages while capturing 35 armed pirates during a nearly 40-hour operation off the Somalia coast. The pirates were brought to India for prosecution.

The Ruen hijacking was the first successful attack on a cargo ship by Somali pirates since 2017. The Ruen may also have been used as the base for the takeover of a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia in mid-March, the European Union naval force said.

The waterways off Somalia are some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Every year, about 20,000 vessels pass through the Gulf of Aden on their way to and from the Red Sea and the Suez Canal — the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia.

The attacks, which often include ransom demands, have caused prices for armed security guards and insurance coverage to rise, five shipping industry representatives told Reuters.

The hijackings have extended the area in which insurers impose additional war risk premiums on ships. These premiums are an additional cost that insurance companies charge to cover the potential risks associated with war, terrorism and political unrest in areas of conflict.

War risk premiums are getting more expensive for voyages through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical seven-day trip, insurance industry officials told Reuters. The cost to hire a team of private armed guards aboard ships for three days also increased in February to between $4,000 and $15,000 monthly, a roughly 50% increase.

While no ransom payments have been reported, Isse and another source told Reuters that there were negotiations for a payout in the millions to release the Ruen.

Piracy reached its peak in Somalia in 2011 when Somali pirates launched 212 attacks. That year, the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group estimated that piracy cost the global economy about $7 billion.

Officials recorded only five attacks between 2017 and 2020. The lull was attributed to coordinated anti-piracy naval operations, safety measures such as armed guards on ships, and increased prosecution and imprisonment of pirates.

“If we do not stop it while it’s still in its infancy, it can become the same as it was,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Reuters.

The attacks continued.

An Iranian fishing vessel in late March was sailing southwest of the Yemeni island of Socotra when nine armed Somali pirates seized it.

Two Indian Navy ships intercepted the vessel, which led to more than “12 hours of intense coercive tactical measures” before the pirates surrendered, according to the Indian Navy. Officials took the pirates from the Arabian Sea to India for prosecution while the vessel’s 23 Pakistani crew members were medically cleared to continue fishing.