Somali pirates have seized an Iranian fishing vessel carrying 23 people, raising fresh concern that hijacked boats could be turned against commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean.
The vessel, the Azini, was taken on Thursday between the coastal towns of Bandar Bayla and Hafun in north-eastern Somalia, according to a maritime security officer with the Puntland Maritime Police Force who spoke to the Associated Press on Sunday. The officer said 12 pirates boarded the boat, which was carrying 21 Iranian crew members and two Somali security guards.
The Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean said in an alert on Saturday that the crew’s safety was unknown, and warned that the vessel was moving towards a commercial shipping lane. In an updated warning, the centre said pirates could use the Azini as a “mother ship” to support attacks on larger vessels. The European Union’s naval Operation Atalanta was investigating, and ships in the area were urged to stay vigilant and report suspicious activity.
The seizure is the latest in a revival of Somali piracy that had been largely suppressed over the past decade by international naval patrols and better onboard security. By August, pirates had hijacked six commercial vessels since April, some of them far from the Somali coastline, including the oil products tanker Sibu 1, taken about 136 nautical miles east of al Mukalla in Yemen.
In September, Puntland authorities said pirates had killed five crew members of the tanker MT Honour 25, which had been held since April, before security forces recovered the vessel and detained 16 suspected pirates.
The renewed threat adds another hazard for shipping in a region already disrupted by war. Attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and threats by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Saudi-linked shipping through Bab el Mandeb have complicated routes used to move oil to world markets, lengthening voyages and driving up tanker costs. The Associated Press reported in September that some oil shipments diverted around Africa faced journeys up to a month longer, while daily spot charter rates for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz had reached $1 million.
That context makes even a single fishing vessel significant: a hijacked boat that can stay at sea for weeks, refuel smaller attack skiffs and launch raids far from shore is exactly the tool pirates used at the height of the crisis more than a decade ago. Whether the Azini becomes such a base, or is recovered quickly, will be an early test of how far the current resurgence has gone.
Note on sourcing: the account of the hijacking rests on the Associated Press report citing the Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean and a Puntland maritime police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity; the crew’s safety has not been independently confirmed.
Sources: Associated Press, “Somali pirates seize Iranian fishing vessel, raising fears of attacks on cargo ships” (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/4787243/somali-pirates-seize-iran-fishing-vessel/)
