Somali Piracy Is Back — and the MT Honour 25 Hostages Show Why It Matters
Somali pirates holding the MT Honour 25 have demanded about $3 million for the release of the hijacked tanker, its cargo and crew, including 10 Pakistani sailors who have now spent months in captivity.
Pakistan’s government has intensified diplomatic efforts for their release, with Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar directing officials to coordinate with Somali authorities and international partners.
The tanker was seized off the Puntland coast in April after armed men boarded it roughly 30 nautical miles offshore. European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta later confirmed the piracy incident and tracked the vessel inside Somali territorial waters.
The Honour 25 was carrying approximately 18,500 barrels of oil and had earlier departed Berbera before eventually turning toward Mogadishu. Initial reports listed a crew of 17, including 10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan and one Myanmar national, although later Pakistani reporting gave different figures for the non-Pakistani crew.
That discrepancy itself shows how difficult hostage cases become once vessels are held for months in poorly governed coastal areas.
More important is what the case reveals about the return of Somali piracy.
At its peak more than a decade ago, piracy off Somalia forced governments and shipping companies to build an extraordinary security architecture involving naval patrols, armed guards, intelligence sharing and revised shipping procedures.
That system worked.
Piracy fell dramatically.
But it never disappeared completely.
The Honour 25 case shows that armed groups still possess the coastal access, local networks and operational capability required to seize commercial vessels when maritime security weakens.
The hijackers have also demonstrated the traditional Somali piracy model: seize a valuable ship, move it toward a controlled stretch of coastline and transform the crew into bargaining leverage.
The $3 million demand is reportedly non-negotiable. Crew members have meanwhile issued distress messages describing poor food, contaminated water and deteriorating health conditions.
That turns the incident from a shipping-security problem into a prolonged hostage crisis.
The broader strategic environment makes the resurgence even more dangerous.
Commercial vessels operating around Somalia are already navigating instability stretching from the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz. Piracy adds another layer of risk to routes already exposed to missiles, drones and regional conflict.
And the threat is not theoretical.
Earlier this week, another vessel was hijacked off Puntland, underlining that the Honour 25 is not an isolated event.
WARYATV ASSESSMENT
The lesson from the Honour 25 is straightforward:
Somali piracy survives whenever maritime security creates enough space for it to return.
The pirates do not need to control the Indian Ocean.
They need only a few vulnerable ships, safe coastal anchorages and enough time to turn human beings into ransom assets.
For Puntland and Somalia, that creates an immediate sovereignty test. Allowing vessels and foreign crews to remain hostage for months risks rebuilding the perception that sections of the Somali coastline are once again permissive territory for piracy.
For international navies, the challenge is equally serious.
China, Japan, the European Union and other powers are already conducting anti-piracy patrols in these waters. Yet the continuing captivity of the Honour 25 demonstrates that naval presence alone cannot solve the problem once pirates reach shore.
The next phase must combine maritime patrols with stronger coastal intelligence, financial disruption, local law enforcement and pressure on the networks that supply and protect pirate groups.
The danger is not that Somali piracy has returned to its 2011 peak.
The danger is that the conditions allowing it to rebuild are becoming visible again.
And the MT Honour 25, still held for a $3 million ransom, is the clearest warning yet that the Somali coast cannot afford to ignore that resurgence.
