Somalian Pirates Step Up Attacks As Ships Reroute Amid Middle East War

The Pirates of the Caribbean perished by the early 18th Century; the pirates of Somalia are surging in 2026. The catalyst is the escalating conflict in the Middle East, which is forcing commercial ships to detour through their strike zone.

Due to conflict between Iran and US-Israel, maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz - the transit route for approximately 20% of global oil, natural gas, and critical raw materials - has virtually come to a halt. To bypass this bottleneck, shipping carriers are forced to detour around the southern tip of Africa, rerouting maritime traffic directly into the highly volatile waters of the Somali Basin.

#Datafy | Somalian Pirates Step Up Attacks As Ships Reroute Amid Middle East War https://t.co/KcldhGFbQK pic.twitter.com/AyzOTVThAy

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This route diversion has enabled a resurgence of piracy, threatening to disrupt years of relative stability along the Somali coast. Taking advantage of the increased traffic, pirate groups have carried out a wave of back-to-back hijackings in the last two months.

Data analysed by NDTV Datafy suggests that Somali pirates hijacked at least six vessels between April 25 and May 2, including at least two cargo ships and two tankers. One of them, Togo-flagged cargo ship MV EUREKA was hijacked off the Yemeni port of Qana and diverted to Somalia.

Piracy-related events attributed to Somali Piracy Action groups nearly doubled within six months of 2026 compared to last year.

A total of 10 maritime incidents were attributed to Somali pirates last year, which grew to at least 18 by May 31 this year, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre, and European naval forces' Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO), and Indian Navy.

On June 6 alone, armed Somali pirates attempted to board at least three commercial vessels, according to the Indian Navy's Information Fusion Centre - Indian Ocean Region.

UKMTO has warned that "piracy threat level remains severe" in the Somali coast and basin, which was notorious for piracy attacks in the 2000s.

One incident of hijacking attempt was thwarted by the Indian Navy by chasing away a skiff with seven armed pirates who targeted a ship near Somalia on April 23.

In a more troubling trend this year, Somali pirates have forged an alliance with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, Somali lawmaker Mohamed Dini told CNN.

Somalia does have a functioning government that allows pirate groups to thrive.