After its capture in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday March 12, the Bangladesh-flagged bulk carrier MV Abdullah is now in Somali territorial waters, its crew and cargo (55,000 tonnes of coal) taken hostage by pirates. If the Indian navy said it was ready to intervene to try to free the 23 crew members, the Bangladeshi company SR Shipping, owner of the bulk carrier, would be willing to pay a ransom to regain control of its ship.
Until a few months ago, acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia seemed like a distant memory; when, between 2008 and 2012, pirates infested the clear waters of the Gulf of Aden, carrying out more than 600 attacks and raking in around $400 million (around €370 million at current prices), according to the World Bank. At the time, major international military efforts made it possible to fight pirates and secure the passages. They seemed to have gradually eradicated the threat. The last capture of a ship by Somali criminal groups was in 2017.
In a context of crisis in the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels target commercial ships using missiles and booby-trapped drones, piracy is simultaneously making a surprising return off the Somali coast. “There have been more acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia since November 2023 than in the last ten years,” notes Martin Kelly, chief advisor at EOS Risk Group, a British security agency.
Opportunism
The MV Abdullah is already the third commercial vessel captured by Somali pirates since November – the other two have been freed. The military operation “Atalante”, deployed in the Indian Ocean by the European Union since 2008, has recorded 23 incidents (captures or attempted approaches) over the last four months, mainly involving fishing vessels. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, again, a bulk carrier escaped the assault led by a group of pirates north of the Yemeni island of Socotra.
The military of Operation “Atalanta” considers the threat of attack on boats plying these waters to be “moderate” – in other words, “a realistic possibility” – and are calling on ships to extreme vigilance. “The volatile situation in the Red Sea is conducive to the return of pirate mafias,” said the force’s command center. We have always said that they have been repressed but not eradicated, and that they will take advantage of any opportunity to resume their activity. »
Four groups of pirates (about 36 men in total) are currently believed to be sailing in an area up to 1,200 miles off the coast of Somalia. In recent months, they have captured several dhows (dhows typical of the Indian Ocean) which they would use as “mother ships”, that is, as launching bases to attack larger merchant ships . Additionally, several piracy camps are once again active on the Somali coast near the port town of Eyl in the Puntland region, which the MV Abdullah is currently heading towards.
If they come to awaken the specters of a painful and costly past for the international merchant marine, the recent acts of piracy do not herald a large-scale return of the activity, assures Omar Mahmood, researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG). “These are opportunistic actions, both linked to the disruption of maritime traffic in the Red Sea and to a local phenomenon of frustration among fishing communities, who feel harmed by illegal fishing,” he says.
Illegal fishing
Indeed, many dhows from Iran, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka consider the Somali coasts to be an Eldorado where schools of fish are plentiful and local authorities are incapable of controlling fishing. These ships empty fish stocks and damage the nets of Somali fishermen, in defiance of international rules. In a study, the NGO Global Fishing Watch counts around 200 vessels operating without any authorization off the coast of Somalia.
The predation of foreign fishermen in the Gulf of Aden is historically the source of discontent among local communities, who, for lack of legal means, resort to piracy. Nineteen of these fishing vessels – the majority Iranian – have been attacked by Somali pirates since November. “Until the issue of illegal fishing is resolved, piracy will continue,” observes Omar Mahmood.
Currently, Italian, Spanish, American, Indian and Seychellois warships are patrolling the area as part of various military operations. Ultimately, Somalia, which is beginning its slow reconstruction after repeated civil wars, hopes to strengthen its capabilities to fight piracy, while the thirty-year-old arms embargo was lifted in 2023. In February, the Authorities have signed a maritime defense agreement with their Turkish ally, which is to help Mogadishu defend its coastline and rebuild its naval forces.
