After Red Sea Threats, Ships Now Face Rise in Somali Piracy
- Somalia reports five attacks of large ships since November
- Maritime agency says security void led to recent hijackings
The container ship pproaches the Bab-el-Mandeb strait.
Photographer: Luke Dray/Getty Images
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Piracy off Somalia’s coast has increased since maritime security was disrupted by Houthi militants’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
The Horn of Africa nation has recorded five assaults on commercial ships off its coast since November, Hassan Mohamed Afrah, the director of Somalia’s maritime agency, said by phone on Friday. That’s brought an end to a period of stability that prompted the global shipping industry in 2022 to declassify the coastline on the Indian Ocean as a “high-risk area.”