In the waters off the Horn of Africa, there has been a resurgence of pirate activity since spring, reaching its highest level since 2013, according to an analysis by Agence France-Presse based on data from the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
At least 15 attacks have been recorded since the beginning of the year, based on data from the IMO’s comprehensive global maritime information system—its database—on incidents since 1994 in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, as far as 2,000 kilometers from Somalia.
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Since 2013, only a handful of pirate attacks have been recorded annually in the waters off the country’s coast: five in 2025. But they surged in 2026, particularly in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Eight attacks have been recorded in this area since May.
This is one of the busiest maritime routes in the world, particularly due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a consequence of the U.S.-Iran war, which broke out following the U.S.-Israeli attack on February 28.
The most significant attack this year took place on April 21, when approximately thirty pirates, armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers, stormed the Honour 25, an oil tanker passing north of Eyl, a former fishing port in Puntland that has become a hotbed of Somali piracy. The pirates took the 17 crew members hostage and still hold the 90-meter-long vessel.
These figures, however, pale in comparison to those from 2011, when piracy off the coast of Somalia reached its peak. That year, as in the two preceding years, the IMO had recorded approximately 200 attacks on ships.
