Pirates from Somalia hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen on Saturday and have diverted it to Somalia\u2019s waters, the authorities in Somalia said Sunday, the third such incident in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The hijacking is an embarrassment for the government in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and suggests a resurgence of piracy at a time when the Red Sea, which borders western Yemen, has become an even more critical route for global shipping, given the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
Yemen\u2019s Coast Guard said that unidentified people had boarded the ship, the Togo-flagged Eureka, on Saturday and directed it through the Yemeni part of the Gulf of Aden toward Somalia\u2019s coast. Efforts to monitor and recover the vessel were underway, it added.<\/p>\n
The vessel was being held for ransom off the coast of Puntland, according to Abshir Hashi Ali, director general of the ministry of ports in Galmudug State, a region of Somalia\u2019s federal republic that borders Puntland.<\/p>\n
Given the proximity of the hijacking to Yemen, the attack has heightened concerns in both governments about collaboration between Somali pirates and the Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group backed by Iran, said Mohammed Al-Basha, a regional analyst briefed on the seizure by the Yemeni and Somali authorities.<\/p>\n
An official in the semiautonomous Puntland region, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss sensitive intelligence, said that some Yemenis were also suspected in the attack and that the government was investigating whether they had ties to armed groups, including the Houthis.<\/p>\n
The Houthis and Somali pirates have cultivated an alliance<\/a> over the years, with the rebels at times providing technology<\/a> and military backup<\/a>. Analysts say the war could give them more reason to work together as the high price of fuel presents an opportunity to profit.<\/p>\n The director general of ports in Puntland, Mr. Hashi, said that collaboration between the pirates and the Houthis was \u201ca possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Somali piracy has been a major problem in the Red Sea in recent decades, reaching a peak around 2010 when hundreds of vessels were seized, costing shipping companies and insurers billions of dollars, in part through ransom fees.<\/p>\n The numbers began to decline because of international naval coalitions involving NATO and the European Union and because ships began passing farther from Somalia\u2019s coast and adopting measures such as water cannons to deter pirates.<\/p>\n