Armed pirates in mid-August boarded and seized a cargo vessel about 4 nautical miles off the Somali coast. About a month earlier, pirates seized a Tanzanian-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Aden and took it toward Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region.
Between April and July 2026, the United Nations’ International Maritime Bureau recorded 24 attempted and actual incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, posing higher risks for global shipping.
“In recent months, we have seen a peak in the piracy events in the area,” a spokesperson for the European Naval Force Somalia Operation Atalanta counterpiracy operation told TWZ, an online military publication. “There are different reasons that are likely behind the situation … some of them are recurrent like the weather at sea or the difficult situation for some of the Somali population; others are related to the current instability in the area.”
Analysts believe Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are helping Somali pirates. The growing relationship between the Houthis and Somalia’s al-Qaida affiliated al-Shabaab has resulted in pirate groups using more sophisticated Houthi-supplied weaponry and technology. This includes GPS satellite devices that let pirates accurately track commercial vessels.
“For the Houthis, instability generated by Somali piracy provides indirect strategic advantages by increasing maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Aden without requiring the Yemeni group to assume the significant risks associated with renewed escalation in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait,” the American Security Project think tank reported.
The Houthis and al-Shabaab have exchanged intelligence, trafficked weapons and cooperated on violent attacks, a United Nations panel reported in October 2025. Confidential sources told the U.N. Panel of Experts on Yemen that the Houthis were training al-Shabaab members in drone technology and how to manufacture sophisticated improvised explosive devices.
“If the Al-Shabaab and the Houthis formalize a relationship where they take control of the Red Sea, the Bab-el Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden, and have the Somali pirates be a part of that militant organization, it would fundamentally change the dynamic in the region,” Corey Ranslem, CEO at Dryad Global, a global maritime cybersecurity and risk intelligence firm, told cable TV network CNBC. “It could mean Houthi technology, including missiles, drones, and drone capabilities, becomes available to the Somali pirates, and then risks grow disproportionately.”
Yemeni Foreign Minister-designate Afrah Al-Zouba said the Houthis are replicating Iran’s Hormuz Strait strategy in the Red Sea by disrupting shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb.
“The Houthis want to copy the Iranian model, and this will shut down two main straits, the gateways into the Gulf and Red Sea,” Al-Zouba said in a Reuters report.
The recent uptick in attacks comes after a period of relative calm. Between 2005 and 2012, pirate groups collected between $339 million and $413 million, according to World Bank estimates. Operation Atalanta recorded 26 pirate attacks between 2013 and 2019 and then no attacks from 2020 to 2022. Piracy off the Somali coast resumed with six attacks in 2023 and surged to 22 in 2024, while only five such incidents were reported last year.
Large ransom payments play a role in the pirate attacks. Somali pirates in March 2026 released a Chinese vessel taken in January 2026 after receiving up to $1.5 million in ransom.
“The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have driven ships closer to the Somali coastline, near pirate hotspots, and given how high oil and gas prices are, these energy tankers have become extremely valuable and particularly vulnerable,” Matt Reisener, senior national security advisor for the Center of Maritime Strategy, told CNBC.
This leaves shipowners to weigh attack risks amid rising insurance premiums.
“The piracy issue is definitely adding to acute uncertainty, and making those who have already decided to avoid the Red Sea stay firm in their decision,” Ian Ralby, CEO of I.R. Consilium, a maritime and resource security firm, told CNBC.