Pirates Seize Sanctioned Product Tanker East of Al Mukalla
Six armed men took the dark-operating tanker in the Gulf of Aden as Somali piracy runs at a ten-year high
A sanctioned product tanker operating under what appears to be a false identity has been boarded and taken over in the Gulf of Aden, the second hijacking in the region in a week and the sixth vessel currently held by Somali pirate groups.
The tanker broadcast a distress call on VHF 16 while 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, Yemen, reporting that it was being approached by an unauthorised vessel as it ran westbound. UK Maritime Trade Operations later confirmed that six armed pirates were aboard and in control. The ship had been sailing dark, and the crew appears to have transmitted one final AIS message reading "PRIRATE ONBOARD HEL" before the vessel was turned toward Somalia. The attackers have stated they intend to proceed to Bosaso.
The ship was showing the name Sibu 1, an identity believed to be false. Databases alternately list the 32,238 dwt tanker, built in 2001, as Seamull, with its claimed Eritrean registry reported to be invalid. Ownership is similarly obscured.
The vessel is not an unknown quantity. The U.S. Treasury included it in a December 2025 action covering 29 shadow fleet ships and their management companies, which the Office of Foreign Assets Control said had moved hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian petroleum products. That action centred on Hatem Elsaid Farid Ibrahim Sakr, an Egyptian businessman whose companies OFAC linked to seven of the 29 vessels. Seamull was one of three ships listed as recently transferred into the management of a UAE-based company, and OFAC said the vessels had carried naphtha and gasoil and called at Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen.
Three days earlier, roughly eight pirates armed with AK-47 type weapons boarded a small cargo ship about three nautical miles off the Somali coast. The crew mustered in the citadel, but the attackers gained access and moved them to the bridge. The 1,400 dwt Lutuf, registered in Cameroon and bound for Tanzania, is now anchored off Somalia alongside the Honour, Sward, Eureka and Asna, all seized between April and July.
Ransom demands have escalated with the tempo of attacks. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime has reported demands of as much as $10 million for the 3,353 dwt product tanker Eureka, taken in May, and has noted infighting between pirate action groups.
Danish Shipping warned on August 19 that piracy-related incidents off Somalia are at their highest level in ten years, citing ICC International Maritime Bureau data showing 13 incidents in the first seven months of 2026 against five in the same period last year and eight the year before. The previous spike was in 2018. Jacob K. Clasen, Deputy Director General and Deputy CEO of Danish Shipping, said that within Somalia "challenges such as drought, illegal fishing, economic hardship and weak government structures may be contributing to making piracy a more attractive 'career path'."
Clasen added that vessels following international Best Management Practices are generally far less vulnerable, and pointed to physical measures such as barbed wire, secured access points, water cannons and CCTV alongside stronger monitoring and reporting procedures. EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta remains active in international waters, and Chinese and Indian naval units continue to operate in the area.
