Officials say pirates have become emboldened as naval forces patrolling the Red Sea area have been distracted by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and civilian sea routes have been diverted.
Published on 2 May 2026
Yemen’s coast guard says it is trying to recover an oil tanker that was hijacked off the coast and is now headed towards Somalia.
The “M/T Eureka” was seized off Yemen’s southeastern Shabwa province after armed attackers boarded the vessel and took control of it, the coast guard said in a statement on Saturday. After this the hijackers diverted the tanker from the Gulf of Aden towards the Somali coast.
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It is at least the fourth attack to occur near Somalia in recent weeks, in an apparent response to the war in Iran increasing pirate activity in the region. Officials say pirates have become emboldened as naval forces patrolling the Red Sea area have been distracted by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and civilian sea routes have been diverted.
The coast guard said it was working with international partners and relevant authorities in the Gulf of Aden to recover the tanker and ensure the safety of the crew, whose fate is unknown.
However, it cautioned that its capabilities are limited due to Yemen’s dire economic situation.
‘window of opportunity’
Ship hijackings off the Somali coast have become more frequent since the US and Israel launched war against Iran in February.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has raised the piracy threat level off the Somali coast to “substantial” and warned vessels to “transit with caution”.
EU naval forces patrolling the area said the Iran war had given pirate groups a “window of opportunity”.
On April 21, a tanker carrying approximately 18,000 barrels of oil was hijacked off the Somali coast. Within the next five days, two more ships were seized.
Somalia’s coastline was the world’s worst area for piracy in the early to mid-2000s. The World Bank estimates that at its peak, piracy was costing the global economy $18 billion per year.
According to EU naval force data, more than 200 attacks were recorded in 2011 alone.
An international naval coalition eventually suppressed the threat, and reduced attacks to almost zero by 2014.
However, incidents began to increase again in 2023, which some analysts attributed to anti-piracy patrols being redirected to the Red Sea to counter threats from Houthi forces targeting ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis said their attacks were a response to oppression of Palestinians.
