Somali pirates abandon hijacked UAE vessel after running out of food
Al Jazeera English
Somali pirates have abandoned a UAE-flagged dhow they seized in late April after being unable to use it as a mother ship to attack other vessels, security officials in Puntland said. The 11-member crew abandoned the ship on May 4 due to depleted supplies and heightened vigilance on passing vessels. The incident raises renewed concerns about Somali piracy after years of relative calm.
Security officials in Somalia's Puntland region said a UAE-flagged dhow hijacked by Somali pirates in late April has been abandoned in the Arabian Sea after the group failed to use it to attack other ships.
The 11-member pirate crew seized the Fahad-4 in late April about 10 nautical miles (19 km) off the coastal town of Dhinowda in northeastern Somalia. The vessel, which was carrying a cargo of limes, was taken by the group to serve as a mother ship in attempts to attack other vessels in Somali waters.
However, according to a Puntland security official, the pirates were forced to abandon the ship on May 4 because "their supplies ran out and they could not attack other vessels due to heightened vigilance on ships passing through Somali waters in recent weeks."
No information was immediately available on the fate of the dhow's crew, and Somali authorities have not officially commented on the vessel's status.
The incident is the latest hijacking to raise concerns about Somali piracy, after years of relative calm in one of the world's busiest maritime corridors.
According to the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC), a multinational agency that monitors maritime security in the Indian Ocean, the risk of piracy was recently raised to "severe" after a series of attacks on commercial shipping routes.
Maritime observers said several vessels hijacked in recent weeks remain under pirate control, including the Barbados-flagged oil tanker Honor 25 (seized off Puntland on April 21) and the Syria-flagged vessel Sward.
On the opposite side of the Gulf of Aden, pirates seized the Togo-flagged gasoline tanker Eureka off the coast of Yemen before sailing it toward the Somali shore.
It remains unclear which groups are behind the attacks. In the past, local fishermen and various armed groups, including those linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda, have been involved in hijackings.
Analysts speculate that the diversion of anti-piracy patrol vessels since 2023 to the Red Sea — to counter Houthi attacks in Yemen's Bab al-Mandeb Strait connecting the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea — has created opportunities for pirates.
More recently, naval patrols by several countries that previously helped curb piracy have been diverted or redirected to escort vessels attempting to approach the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran and the United States have imposed blockades.
Experts suggest that a surge in fuel prices amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran could also make oil tankers like the Honor 25 more valuable to pirates.
According to the World Bank, the annual impact of Somali piracy on the global economy reached up to $18 billion during the peak of the crisis.
