On April 21, 2026, the Palau-flagged oil tanker MT Honour 25 was hijacked by six armed Somali pirates approximately 30 nautical miles off the Somali coast. The vessel, carrying an estimated 18,000 barrels of oil, was then anchored off the coast of Eyl in Puntland, as confirmed by the Embassy of Pakistan in Djibouti. Operated by Wharf Chartering, which is registered in Indonesia, the tanker is reportedly owned by a Puntland-based businessman. At the time of the incident, the vessel had a crew of 17 members on board, including 10 Pakistani nationals – some believed to be from Karachi – and an Indonesian captain. The pirates are reported to have demanded a ransom of USD 7 million for the release of the crew.

Initial reports indicated that six armed individuals boarded the vessel; subsequent developments suggested that additional reinforcements increased the number of pirates to at least eleven. A Japanese maritime patrol aircraft operating under the Combined Maritime Forces verified the vessel’s position within Somalia’s territorial waters. In response, EUNAVFOR (European Union Naval Force) Operation Atalanta deployed at least two warships to the area on April 25, which remain in the vicinity of the hijacked tanker. The European Union Naval Force constitutes an ongoing maritime security initiative aimed at countering piracy off the Horn of Africa and across the Western Indian Ocean.

The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust in Pakistan established direct communication with the Somali pirates in an effort to negotiate the release of the abducted crew members. However, the captors have indicated that they intend to convey their demands exclusively to representatives of the Government of Pakistan. Despite this stance, the Government has not responded to an email reportedly sent by the pirates to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan.

The pirates have also reached out to the governments of Indonesia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, given that seven crew members from these countries are also among those held captive aboard the vessel. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Federal Government has maintained that it remains engaged with relevant stakeholders in ongoing efforts to secure the safe release of the Pakistani hostages.

The MT Honour 25 hijack is not an isolated incident. Since April 2026, at least three vessels have been seized in Somali waters, raising concerns regarding a potential resurgence of piracy in the Horn of Africa and exacerbating challenges faced by the global maritime shipping industry. On April 26, the cargo vessel Sward was captured approximately six nautical miles (11 kilometres) northeast of the Somali town of Garacad, a day after the seizure of a dhow in the same region. The Sward carried a crew of 17 members, including 15 Syrian nationals and two Indians, all of whom were taken hostage.

In a statement issued on April 27, the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO) noted that “all incidents remain ongoing,” and advised vessels operating in the region to exercise heightened vigilance, particularly within a 150-nautical-mile radius of the Somali coastline between Mogadishu and Hafun.

The resurgence of piracy off the Horn of Africa is not unexpected. According to a 2011 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the period between 2000 and 2007 recorded an annual average of 26 reported piracy incidents. This figure rose sharply to 111 incidents in 2008 and escalated further to over 400 incidents in both 2009 and 2010, affecting maritime traffic not only off the Somali coast but also across the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and into the wider Indian Ocean.

In 2009, Somali pirates were responsible for more than half of global piracy incidents, while approximately 790 seafarers were taken hostage in 2010 alone. At the peak of such activities in 2011, Somali pirate groups launched 237 attacks and held hundreds of hostages, as reported by the International Maritime Bureau. During the same period, the monitoring group Oceans Beyond Piracy estimated that piracy imposed an economic cost of nearly USD 7 billion on the global economy, including substantial ransom payments.

Further, according to EUNAVFOR, pirate operations became increasingly sophisticated and far-reaching, with attacks occurring as far as 2,270 miles from the Somali coastline in the Indian Ocean. Subsequent interventions by an international naval coalition significantly curtailed piracy incidents, reducing them to minimal levels from 2014 onwards. However, a gradual resurgence of such activities has been observed since 2023.

The conditions conducive to a resurgence of piracy have gradually been consolidating. Maritime security operations that had effectively curtailed Somali piracy for over a decade were partially reallocated in 2023 toward the Red Sea to address Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Subsequent geopolitical developments, particularly the US-Iran war and the disruption of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, have further strained these deployments. .

Concurrently, the sharp increase in global energy prices – most notably crude oil, which has risen by over 50 percent since the onset of the conflict to exceed USD 110 per barrel – has enhanced the economic attractiveness of fuel-carrying vessels such as MT Honour 25, increasing their susceptibility as high-value targets for piracy.

Jethro Norman, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, observed that the integration of advanced technologies – such as GPS systems, satellite communications, and the use of hijacked dhow vessels as motherships – has enabled these groups to extend their operational reach hundreds of miles offshore.

The hijacking of MT Honour 25 illustrates how regional instability in the Horn of Africa intersects with broader global conflicts, underscoring the urgent need for coordinated international maritime security efforts to prevent a sustained resurgence of piracy and safeguard critical shipping routes.