Off the Horn of Africa, a decade of relative quiet has ended as Somali pirates return to the seas with renewed sophistication and ambition — not because the pirates themselves have changed, but because the world around them has shifted in their favor. Global naval forces drawn into the vortex of US-Iran tensions have abandoned their patrols, while Houthi pressure in the Red Sea has rerouted commercial shipping directly into pirate waters. Eight hijackings since late April remind us that instability is never truly contained — it migrates, finds openings, and fills them.
Somali piracy surges to decade-high as geopolitical chaos diverts naval resources
Crew members taken hostage during hijackings; nine armed men killed in Turkish drone strikes during Lutuf rescue operation.