Somali pirates are taking advantage of a maritime security vacuum created by the war with Iran, according to a Politico report that found a resurgence in attacks on commercial ships as international naval resources have been pulled toward the Middle East. The development comes as the global shipping industry contends with attacks around the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, higher energy prices, and sharply reduced traffic through some of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.
As of August 22, six commercial vessels have been seized since April across the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean. That is up from Politico’s report that Somali pirates had seized at least three tankers carrying oil and fertilizer since April, while a chemical-carrying ship was hijacked off Yemen in July. The latest attacks have occurred as the United States and other countries have concentrated naval forces around the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The White House did not immediately comment to Fortune on the ongoing situation.
Brett Erickson, a managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, told Politico the pirates were benefiting from the diversion of American resources. He described the pirates as “profiteers.”
“This is obviously a very, very lucrative business for them,” he said, “and right now they have a far lower risk of American reaction to it because so many resources are tied up in the Middle East in general.”
Erickson also warned that piracy is becoming significant as it emerges alongside several other threats to shipping. He explained, “we’re now looking at multiple vectors” that increase prices for maritime companies and force them to de-risk entirely. He said Somali piracy by itself may not be enough to fundamentally disrupt global shipping, but every additional attack matters when companies are already dealing with disruptions elsewhere in the region.
The Iran War began in February, with US airstrikes on Iran leading to conflicts centering on a part of the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow waterway through which a major share of the world’s seaborne energy trade normally travels. Attacks on commercial vessels and the confrontation over access to the strait have caused shipping traffic to collapse. Based on reports from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, there have been 41 recent incidents in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz as of August 25.
As of August 24, fewer than 20 commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, according to Reuters.
The increase, however, still doesn’t match the scale of Somalia’s piracy crisis at its peak. Somali pirates carried out more than 1,000 attacks between roughly 2005 and 2012, imposing more than $400 million in ransoms and, at its peak, costing the global economy an estimated $18 billion a year. International naval patrols, including operations involving NATO, the EU and the 47-nation Combined Maritime Forces, eventually brought the threat under control.
“The threat from Somali pirates itself may not be fatal,” Erickson told Politico, “but combined with all the other factors, their actions are making a significant difference.”
The post ‘This is obviously a very, very lucrative business for them’: Somali pirates are back—the Iran war is keeping the US too busy to stop them appeared first on Fortune.
