Piracy: ​hijackings turn deadly as two tankers freed, with third reportedly abandoned

Second update:

The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) has posted a statement in Somali to its X account. The statement, via automated translation, described the deaths of five and injuries to four of the crew members on board oil tanker Honour 25, which the PMPF freed from pirates who had held it and its crew hostage for five months. The vessel had 17 crew on board.

“The group of pirates who had seized the vessel killed five members of the crew early this morning, before the operation began. Those killed included three Pakistani nationals, one Myanmar national and one Indian national. The pirates also wounded four crew members, including three Pakistanis and one Indian,” the statement read. “During the operation, the security forces captured 16 of the pirates, while a number of others escaped and are still being pursued by the forces.

The authorities have information about the locations where the escaped members are believed to be, and operations to apprehend them are continuing. “

Update:

The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) has reported that it has “carried out a maritime operation off the coast of Dharin-baar, Bandary Beyla District, successfully rescuing the Honour 25 oil tanker, which had been hijacked by pirates”.

Greece-based maritime security firm Marisks reports unconfirmed accounts of as many of five of the vessel’s crew killed during the operation.

“Initial and currently unconfirmed reports indicate that the… crew members were killed during the PMPF operation. Two suspected pirates were reportedly injured, 11 detained, while an unknown number escaped. These casualty figures remain subject to official confirmation,” Marisks said.

A telephone call posted to the Facebook page of a Pakistani human rights organisation, the Ansar Burney Trust, led by Pakistan’s former Federal Minister for human rights, former United Nations expert adviser on human rights and current owner of a London-based law firm, Ansar Burney, also indicated five crew were killed.

In the phone call, someone calling himself the captain said “my crew, five crew died… three [from] Pakistan, one [from] Myanmar, one [from] India”.

The rescue comes days after PMPF rescued another hiijacked tanker, Sibu 1 (also known as Seamull) with no crew casualties reported. 

Pirates threatened crew of tanker held hostage for five months

On 24 and 25 September, the captain of another hijacked vessel sent reports of what he characterised as “an extremely dangerous situation” on board, with pirates threatening the lives of the captive crew from Honour 25, which was hijacked in late April 2026. 

“I am Captain Ashari Samadikun, Master of Honour 25. We would like to urgently report that we are currently in an extremely dangerous situation. The pirates are in a state of threatening to kill us, following an attack on Cebu 1 [sic], which was hijacked last month and is currently located near our vessel,” the captain said.

Among other threats, the pirates holding the Honour 25 crew told them that 12 crew members from Sibu 1 had been killed during the rescue operation, that “any attack on Honour 25 under the current circumstances would place all crew members in extremely serious and immediate danger”, and that the pirates could move the ship from its current location and take the crew “to the jungle” to keep them hostage. 

Captain Samadikun related the harrowing reports to the Ansar Burney Trust, which claims to have freed “over 900,000 people from… wrongful confinement both in Pakistan and internationally,” since it was founded in 1980.

Captain Samadikun provided the trust with a “fresh picture” of the crew and asked for its messages to be relayed to the Pakistani government as well as Turkish and Puntland military forces.

The Ansar Burney Trust posted a telephone conversation on its Facebook page in which the vessel captain said he had also made contact with the Indonesian government. Captain Samadikun said in the recording that negotiations had been ongoing between the government and the pirates, with “the next step” being for the pirates to hand over the vessel’s first medical assistant as proof of willingness to release the crew.

“After that, the next step, they will be paid the ransom,” Captain Samadikun said.

The captain asked the representative to “please avoid any urgent situation here, because the Sibu [1] are very close with us” and said that the pirates were worried that a military force would attack Honour 25.

“We respectfully and urgently request all relevant authorities to prioritize the safety and preservation of the lives of the crew onboard Honour 25 and to avoid any action that could trigger retaliation against us.

25 September rescue of Sibu 1

A 25-year-old, 32,238-DWT tanker under opaque ownership and a false Eritrean flag has reportedly been rescued after being hijacked approximately 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, Yemen, and spending several weeks under pirate control.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF), a security force based in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Somalia, said it had freed the tanker Sibu 1 (also known as Seamull) after more than a month under the control of Somali pirates, following a counter-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia.

The PMPF said in a post on 25 September that Sibu 1 had been recovered following an operation that began on 23 September. The force said the 48-hour mission had used both maritime and land units to capture the tanker from the pirates.

“PMPF forces also apprehended all pirates involved in the hijacking and confirmed the safety of the vessel’s crew and cargo,” the force said.

According to a Reuters report, the tanker was intercepted between Garacad and Hobyo, off Somalia’s Mudug region. Greece-based maritime security firm Marisks said casualties and several injuries were reported during the operation. Current reporting from Puntland authorities has indicated one pirate was killed, four wounded and 15 captured, while one PMPF officer was wounded.

The crew on board the hijacked tanker had been held on board since its hijacking on 20 August.

Recent history of hijackings and use of ’motherships’ by Somali pirates

Marisks has indicated that the Somalia-flagged Alkauwser may have been used as a mothership in the Sibu 1 (Seamull) hijacking, although the security firm stressed that its involvement remains unconfirmed.

There is evidence of the likely use of another previously hijacked merchant vessel as a mothership by Somali pirates, as Riviera has reported. 

Outlining an escalating sequence of attacks on three vessels in late April and early May 2026, European Union joint naval command EUNAVFOR said it received an alert on 20 April from the Puntland Maritime Police Force reporting that fishing vessel Alkhary 2 had been hijacked by pirates.

The following day, the operation reported the hijacking of tanker Honour 25, which had been positioned approximately 28 nautical miles southeast of Alkhary 2. The fishing vessel was released on 22 April, with all crew safe, while pirates remained on board Honour 25.

Four days later, 8,500-dwt Sward was hijacked off Dhinowda, on the northern coast of Somalia. A general cargo ship, Sward was used to extend the range of pirate operations and was linked to other hijackings.

And another small, 3,300-dwt oil tanker Eureka was later hijacked off the coast of Yemen on 2 May 2026. 

The recovery of Sibu 1 follows the release of Sward and its 15 crew earlier in September, as well as the release of Lutuf and the 10 crew on board after a joint operation by the Turkish Navy and Somalia’s Ministry of Defence. Pirates abandoned Lutuf in small skiffs on 29 August, after a joint operation to free the vessel and its crew undertaken by the Turkish Navy and aided by Somalia’s Ministry of Defence.

In July, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said 44 seafarers were being held aboard three hijacked vessels, Honour 25, Sward and Eureka, from incidents between April and May. The IMO’s report said crews had been running critically low on food and water and living under the constant threat of violence.

A statement issued through the Djibouti Code of Conduct and Jeddah Amendment in July described the situation aboard Honour 25 as particularly serious. Its 17 crew members had, at the time, been in captivity for more than two months; five, including the master, were suffering health problems, food supplies had reportedly been reduced to rice and available water was unsafe to drink. The statement also said armed pirates guarding the tanker had exchanged gunfire with a rival pirate group attempting to approach the ship.

As of its latest statement on the resurgent piracy, prior to Lutuf and Sward being released, IMO said on 24 August that more than 90 seafarers were being held captive. The release of 15 seafarers on board Sward and 10 crew and security officers on board Lutuf as well as the 20 crew members reportedly rescued from Sibu 1 (Seamull) would still leave as many as 51 people being held on board hijacked vessels Asana, Honour 25 and Eureka.

source : rivieramm