BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (Horn Diplomat) — The European Union and Indian navies have taken control of an Iranian fishing vessel used by Somali pirates in the hijacking of a Malta-flagged tanker last week, the EU naval mission confirmed on Wednesday.
The vessel, identified as the Issamohamadi, had been abandoned off the Somali coast after pirates used it as a “mother ship” to seize the Hellas Aphrodite, a tanker carrying gasoline from India to South Africa.
A boarding team from the ESPS Victoria, a Spanish frigate operating under the EU’s Operation Atalanta, secured the dhow and found its original Iranian crew “in good condition, safe and free,” according to the mission. Iran has not yet publicly acknowledged the seizure.
Operation Atalanta said the pirate group responsible has now been “definitely disrupted.” Evidence gathered from both the dhow and the Hellas Aphrodite is being compiled to support legal prosecution of the perpetrators.
Piracy Resurgence Linked to Red Sea Crisis
After peaking in 2011, Somali piracy sharply declined due to coordinated international naval patrols and improved security from Somalia’s then-strengthening central government.
However, attacks have begun rising again over the past year. Security experts attribute the uptick partly to instability sparked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whose assaults on commercial shipping in the Red Sea—linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza—have diverted naval resources and strained maritime security.
The Houthis have recently signaled a halt in attacks as a fragile ceasefire holds in Gaza, though uncertainty remains.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, seven pirate-related incidents were reported off Somalia in 2024. This year, several fishing vessels have been hijacked, but the Hellas Aphrodite is the first commercial ship seized by Somali pirates since May 2024.
