Yemeni boat seized by pirates off Somalia

A Yemeni boat has been seized off the Horn of Africa, less than a month after a Chinese fishing vessel was released by Somali pirates.

A European naval operation in the Middle East, known as Eunavfor Atalanta, said the raid targeted a traditional vessel plying Middle Eastern waters off the town of Eyl in Puntland, Somalia.

The EU monitoring operation for the Horn of Africa said details about the vessel were limited and the incident was under investigation.

Eunavfor Atalanta said it was informed of the suspected attack on February 9 and is coordinating with maritime security partners in the region.

“The incident is currently being investigated to confirm the circumstances. The unnamed fishing vessel is reported to be flagged in Yemen. The attack took place off Eyl, on the northern coast of the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia,” said the EU in the statement.

In a separate statement, maritime security firm Ambrey said the suspects had stolen three small boats with 60-horsepower engines. Ambrey said early on Tuesday that "a suspected pirate action group was sighted departing" from the coast of Eyl.

In January, a Chinese-owned fishing vessel, the Liaoning Daping 578, which was hijacked and taken to Xaafuun district in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, a territory in northeastern Somalia, was released with its 18 crew members safe. It was not immediately clear whether the $10 million ransom demanded by the pirates had been paid.

Atalanta said there had been an increase in attacks and that there had been five years of stability until another local dhow, the Al-Meraj 1, was hijacked in November 2023 in a possible local fishing dispute. Atalanta reported in late 2024 that it had documented 44 attacks in the 13 months to the end of 2024, including unsuccessful attacks.

However, it noted that there were an unknown number of unreported/unconfirmed incidents involving dhows and smaller vessels. They estimated that as many as 19 dhows had been hijacked and were concerned that they were being used as motherships for attacks on merchant vessels.

Once rampant, piracy off the coast of Somalia has declined after peaking in 2011, when 237 attacks were reported off Somalia.

At the time, piracy in the region cost the global economy about $7 billion – including $160 million in ransoms – according to the monitoring group Oceans Beyond Piracy.

Increased international naval patrols, a strengthening of the central government in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, and other efforts saw piracy beaten back.

However, Somali pirate attacks resumed at a faster pace in the past year, partly due to the insecurity caused by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who launched attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Seven incidents were reported off Somalia in 2024, according to the International Maritime Bureau.