Why is piracy picking up off Somalia’s coast again?

Published On 31 Aug 202631 Aug 2026.

Key points

• Between 2005 and 2012, pirates carried out more than 1, 000 attacks off Somalia, according to a World Bank study.
• From them, crews launch fast skiffs capable of striking vessels as far as 600 nautical miles (1, 111km) from the Somali coast.
• Between 2013 and 2023, barely a handful of hijackings succeeded off Somalia.
• The International Monetary Fund ranks Somalia among a handful of countries, including Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan, with almost no financial buffer against such shocks.
• The African Development Bank estimates Somalia loses regarding $300m a year to fishing fleets operating illegally in its waters.

Meanwhile, the Federal Administration of Somalia unveiled on August 29 that the Turkish navy, working with Somali forces, had freed the cargo ship MV Lutuf after a 10-day pursuit, killing 14 pirates and destroying four of their boats.

Meanwhile, the vessel had been seized on August 17 off Jifle, on the coast of Puntland, Somalia's semi-autonomous northeastern region. Mogadishu's Defence Ministry credited its release to a 2024 defence pact between Somalia and Turkiye.

Puntland has disputed that account. Its Ministry of Security remarked no military rescue had taken place and accused federal office-holders of securing the vessel's release through a ransom payment to the pirates.

For context, the conflicting accounts have not been independently verified. But the seizure and the military response around it mark the most dramatic episode yet in a series of pirate attacks off Somalia this year, raising fresh questions regarding how far a resurgence that began in the spring could go. How serious is the return of Somali piracy?

After a number of years in which the crime had all but disappeared from the region, piracy incidents in Somali waters and the Gulf of Aden have risen sharply since the spring.

For context, an AFP analysis of International Maritime Organization data discovered at least 15 attacks since the start of the year, including eight in the Gulf of Aden since May.

One tanker seized off Yemen in May was afterwards directed towards Somalia by pirates demanding $10m. Another vessel, the MV Honour 25, has been held for more than two months.

In May, a separate pirate group abandoned a hijacked Emirati dhow after running short of supplies while using it as a mother ship to attack other ships, Puntland security authorities informed AFP.

In practice, the Joint Maritime Information Center. It monitors threats to shipping in the region, raised its piracy threat assessment to "severe" in response to the surge in attacks during April and May.

When the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for shipping safety and security, recorded around 200 attacks a year, the growth is significant, but still far below the scale of the crisis in the early 2010s.

Afyare Elmi, a Somali academic at City University in Mogadishu, informed Al Jazeera there had "been an uptick, but compared with the levels seen in the early 2010s, the number of attacks is not that high".

Mostafa Elbanna of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime remarked piracy remains well below its historic peak. Speaking at a security session in Nairobi last week, he stated countries in the region are better equipped to respond than they were last time.

Between 2005 and 2012, pirates carried out more than 1, 000 attacks off Somalia, according to a World Bank study. They successfully hijacked 218 vessels and collected an estimated $315m to $385m in ransom payments.

At the peak in 2011, Somalia accounted for well over half of all piracy attacks recorded worldwide.

One Earth Future's Oceans Beyond Piracy programme, a maritime security initiative set up during the Somali piracy crisis, estimated that piracy off Somalia's coast cost the global economy between $6.6bn and $6.9bn in 2011, largely through security measures, higher fuel employ, insurance and naval operations.

Notably, the crisis was eventually brought under control by a vast international security effort. While shipping businesses hardened vessels and changed procedures, nATO's Operation Ocean Shield, the European Union's Operation Atalanta and the US-led Combined Task Force 151 rose naval patrols.

Between 2013 and 2023, barely a handful of hijackings succeeded off Somalia. NATO concluded its counter-piracy mission in 2016.

But the long period of relative calm did not mean the conditions that sustained piracy had disappeared. While fragile coastal governance, illegal fishing and criminal networks persisted onshore, international patrols and better-protected ships created hijackings far harder and more expensive.

As early as 2013, a report by the UN secretary-general remarked the persistence of pirate networks reflected "the onshore rule of law and governance vacuum in which they operate", and cautioned that attacks could rise again if naval patrols were reduced or commercial vessels relaxed their defences. The resurgence is now testing how durable that earlier success was. Why is piracy rising again now?

No single factor explains the resurgence, Abdullahi Mohamed Kulmiye, a former ports and maritime transport minister in Galmudug, a state neighbouring Puntland, informed Al Jazeera. A number of conditions, he stated, appear to have aligned at once.

One is a shift in naval attention elsewhere in the region. The United States and Israel have been at war with Iran since late February, and Iran has at times controlled passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Naval forces that might otherwise patrol waters closer to Somalia have been drawn towards that crisis.

Abdurrahim Muhammad Ali of the Djibouti Maritime Authority informed a regional security gathering in Nairobi this week that pirates were exploiting the diversion of naval forces elsewhere.

"They use this opportunity and the distraction of maritime forces globally to carry out more attacks in this area, because they know everyone is busy, " he remarked.

Economic pressure onshore has intensified meanwhile. As fuel and food rates surged, inflation in Somalia reached 9.2 percent in March, its highest level in years.

Notably, the International Monetary Fund ranks Somalia among a handful of countries, including Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan, with almost no financial buffer against such shocks.

Cuts to aid from the US and United Kingdom, two of Somalia's most significant humanitarian funding sources, have further deepened the country's economic pressures.

Seasonal conditions may additionally play a part. When rough seas keep small boats close to shore, before rising again as the waters calm in spring, according to analysis from the Institute for Security Studies, a Johannesburg-based think tank, attacks typically fall during the winter monsoon. What role does illegal fishing play?

While its exclusive economic zone covers an area larger than its landmass, somalia has the longest coastline in mainland Africa.

In practice, the country is still rebuilding after decades of civil war, with law enforcement stretched thin on land and no effective coastguard to patrol its waters.

Notably, the African Development Bank estimates Somalia loses regarding $300m a year to fishing fleets operating illegally in its waters.

Coastal communities have long accused foreign trawlers of depleting stocks on which local fishermen depend.

When some fishermen took up arms to defend the waters that nobody else was protecting, that grievance supported shape the first major wave of piracy attacks in the 2000s.

But piracy has since developed far beyond that origin story. Andrew Mwangura, a maritime security consultant who spent three decades at sea and afterwards assisted negotiate hostage releases during the earlier crisis, informed Al Jazeera that the motive had changed.

"Before, the individuals were vigilantes mainly driven to sea as of illegal fishing in Somali waters and the dumping of toxic chemicals. Now it is more regarding seizing ships for ransom, " he stated.

Recent attacks suggest both dynamics may still be present. According to the French navy's Maritime Information Cooperation and Awareness Center (MICA Center), pirate groups operating far offshore typically employ dhows disguised as fishing boats as floating bases.

Mwangura believes at least some of those involved are trained seamen, pointing to their employ of GPS navigation and long-range vessel-tracking systems.

Closer to shore, the MICA Center has identified a different pattern, with attacks introduced directly from the coast and aimed at foreign fishing boats accused of stealing Somali fish rather than commercial vessels. Who is financing the pirates?

For now, why is piracy picking up off Somalia's coast again? Remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.