An oil tanker at sea, with barbed wire strung along the side of the railing as a deterrent against piracy. (Shutterstock/Paullawat)

Another Crucial Maritime Chokepoint Is Under Threat

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As the United States has focused its naval efforts on the Strait of Hormuz, piracy off the coast of Somalia—dormant since its heyday in the early 2010s—has made a comeback.

As the Iran war cuts off the Strait of Hormuz, another crucial maritime trade corridor is facing a far older threat: piracy. 

Since April, Somali pirates have launched a hijacking campaign against oil tankers and cargo ships, posing their biggest threat to the Red Sea corridor in over a decade. These activities pose a major threat both to the global economy and to regional security, as they disrupt the oil and derivatives trade and risk enabling al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate, al-Shabaab, to increase its revenue and strengthen its ties with the Houthis. It is thus imperative for the United States to work through local Somali and international partners to ensure that piracy cannot wreak even more havoc than it did over a decade ago.

Piracy Is Making a Comeback in Somalia

From April 21 to May 2, Somali pirates hijacked four ships off the coast of northern Somalia’s Puntland state, long the hotbed of Somali piracy—a rate unseen since at least 2012. Three of the ships were large international vessels, two carrying oil and the other a cargo shipment of cement. The pirates have since navigated the vessels, each carrying over a dozen crewmembers, toward the Somali coast.

While the current piracy resurgence is still in its initial stages, it could metastasize into something far more........

© The National Interest