The Houthi terror organization has been disrupting ship traffic in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which leads to the Gulf of Aden, for over two years. But while the Houthis have recently served as the main threat in the region, it appears the previous menace that terrorized the gulf has returned to operate on its own. The British military reported that Somali pirates hijacked a cargo ship sailing under a Tanzanian flag.
According to the report, the ship was hijacked last week and disappeared, but now two local residents have spotted the vessel off the coast of Somalia. One resident who spoke with Reuters, describing himself as a former pirate, said the ship is carrying a crew of 20 people, including eight Germans and ten Filipinos. The second resident added that he saw the pirates transferring food to the hijacked ship.
In a report from the British military last week, it was claimed that unauthorized individuals boarded the ship in the Gulf of Aden and directed it toward Somali territorial waters—in an incident defined as a hijacking. According to Arab media, Somali pirates caused widespread havoc in the waters of the Gulf of Aden and even south of it between 2008 and 2018, and recorded an uptick in late 2023.