“Andromeda” states a fact: global maritime security is rapidly deteriorating. While the attention of major powers is focused on the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran, as well as the confrontation with the Houthis, a new threat is emerging along strategic maritime routes: the large-scale resurgence of piracy and organized maritime crime.
According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), 44 civilian seafarers remain hostage to pirates today. They have already spent several months in captivity, suffering from severe shortages of food and drinking water and facing a constant threat of violence.
Three vessels have been seized by pirates: MT Honour 25, Eureka, and Sward.
All of them were attacked off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden in April–May 2026.
The statistics demonstrate a systematic deterioration of the situation. Over the past three months alone, 24 actual or attempted attacks by pirates and armed criminals have been recorded in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The number of piracy and armed robbery incidents at sea worldwide has increased by 17% over the year, from 146 to 171 incidents.
Criminal groups are increasingly using automatic weapons, grenade launchers, high-speed boats, and modern communications equipment, significantly increasing the level of threat to civilian shipping.
The current rise in piracy is not accidental. It is a direct consequence of the war in the Middle East.
Our Odesa-based colleague and subscriber, “Captain Andrii,” who has been sailing these waters for many years, confirms the deterioration of the security situation based on his own observations, experience, and, without exaggeration, his own luck.
The fighting between the United States, Israel, and Iran, Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, and the large-scale deployment of naval forces for combat missions have created a shortage of permanent security coverage across the vast waters of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the western Indian Ocean.
This security vacuum is rapidly being filled by pirate groups, smugglers, arms dealers, and other transnational criminal networks.
A new model of threats is effectively emerging, in which armed conflicts and organized crime begin to reinforce each other. Whereas shipowners previously assessed primarily the risks of missile strikes, they are now simultaneously forced to consider the possibility of vessel seizures, crew kidnappings, multimillion-dollar ransom demands, and sabotage against maritime infrastructure.
Up to 12% of global trade and approximately 30% of container shipping passes through the Red Sea, while the Bab el-Mandeb Strait remains one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.
Destabilization of this region automatically means higher freight, insurance, vessel-security, and logistics costs for the global economy.
Piracy is no longer a localized Somali problem. It is once again becoming an instrument for destabilizing international trade, developing in parallel with armed conflicts.
If the international naval presence in the region continues to be dispersed among multiple crises, the number of attacks, vessel seizures, and crew kidnappings will continue to rise.
This would mark the beginning of a new stage in the criminalization of global maritime communications, with consequences that will be felt by virtually every participant in the global economy.
The Red Sea is descending into chaos. War has opened a new era of maritime piracy.