The Yemen Coast Guard announced that it is making efforts to recover a stolen oil tanker offshore and is moving towards Somalia.
The oil tanker M/T Eureka was attacked by pirates off the coast of Shabwa province, southeastern Yemen. Armed gunmen boarded and controlled the ship, according to a statement from the Yemen Coast Guard on May 2. The pirates drove the ship through the Gulf of Aden towards the coast of Somalia.
This is the 4th attack that has occurred near Somalia in recent weeks, amid an increase in piracy activities in the region, as a consequence of the Iranian conflict.
Officials said that pirates are more reckless as the Red Sea patrol navy is dispersed due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and civilian shipping routes are diverted.
The Yemen Coast Guard is coordinating with international partners and relevant agencies in the Gulf of Aden to recover the ship and ensure the safety of the crew.
However, the agency also warned that the capacity of the force is limited due to Yemen's serious economic situation.
Ship hijackings off the coast of Somalia have become more frequent since the US and Israel began attacking Iran in February.
The UK Maritime Trade Coordinating Agency (UKMTO) has raised the piracy warning level along the coast of Somalia to a "significant" level and advised ships to be "cautious when moving".
The European Union navy forces patrolling this area believe that the Iranian conflict has created opportunities for pirate groups.
A ship carrying about 18,000 barrels of oil was hijacked near the coast of Somalia on April 21. Within 5 days, 2 more ships were seized.
The Somali coast was once the world's most severely pirated area from the early to mid-2000s. The World Bank estimated that at its peak, piracy caused damage to the global economy of up to 18 billion USD per year.
In 2011 alone, more than 200 piracy attacks were recorded, according to data from the EU navy.
An international naval alliance then suppressed the threat of piracy, causing the number of attacks to fall almost to 0 in 2014.
However, piracy cases began to increase again from 2023. Some analysts believe that the reason is that anti-piracy forces were transferred to the Red Sea to deal with threats from Houthi forces targeting ships in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
