LONDON (Reuters) -The European Union’s counter piracy force has deployed a warship to the coast off Somalia after a suspected pirate group tried to target ships in the area, maritime sources said on Wednesday.
Armed assailants attacked a commercial tanker off the coast of Mogadishu on Monday, firing at the vessel after attempting to board the ship in the first suspected Somali piracy incident of its kind since 2024, maritime sources said.
The attack and other incidents have raised concerns for the shipping lane through which critical energy and goods are transported to global markets.
A Seychelles-flagged fishing vessel was also approached this week by a speedboat, while maritime security sources said a separate Iranian fishing boat had been seized by unknown assailants.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard said it was highly likely that the fishing vessel had been taken over as a mothership for launching attacks.
The EU’s naval mission, Operation ATALANTA, said it was “aware of the situation and is deploying a naval asset to the area”, declining further comment citing security issues.
“It is highly likely that a Somali Pirate Action Group is at sea, and has been operating more than 300 nautical miles offshore Somalia,” British maritime security company Ambrey said on Wednesday.
“Those (commercial vessels) approached matched the known target profiles and capabilities of Somali pirates.”
Somali pirate gangs, which operated around the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, have been broadly inactive for years.
Yemen’s Iran-affiliated Houthi militia have posed a greater threat to shipping through the Red Sea, which leads into the Gulf of Aden, since the group first launched attacks on commercial ships in November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza.
While the Houthis have agreed to a truce on targeting U.S.-linked shipping, many shipping companies remain wary of resuming voyages through those waters.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
