Piracy at a 34-year low: 94% of hostages taken by Somalis
Thirty-eight acts of piracy were recorded worldwide in the first half of 2026, the lowest total since 1992. Yet 94% of the seafarers taken hostage were held by Somali pirates. A falling counter can conceal a risk that has changed its nature.
The fact
The International Maritime Bureau logged 38 acts of piracy worldwide in the first half of 2026, the lowest total since 1992, against 90 a year earlier. Over the same months five ships were hijacked, four of them off Somalia between April and May. And of the 67 seafarers taken hostage, 94% were held by Somali pirates, whose seizures have continued since.
Why it matters
An incident counter adds up events that have nothing in common. Rope stolen from a ship at anchor counts as one. A tanker seized and held for weeks against ransom also counts as one. The total collapses when petty theft recedes: just two incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, four in the Singapore Strait. Over the same year, the number of seafarers taken hostage rose from 40 to 67. The number falls while the danger changes nature.
That confusion has contractual effects. Shipping industry associations withdrew the Indian Ocean from the list of high risk areas on 1 January 2023, no merchant vessel having been attacked off Somalia since 2018. That classification acted as a trigger in charter contracts: it opened the way to reimbursement by the charterer of armed guards and hardening equipment. Prevention was dismantled because it had worked.
Who does this change things for? Crews first, stripped of the protection that classification funded. Shipowners next, now carrying the cost of that protection alone where hijackings have resumed. And every importer whose cargo uses that corridor: the cost of a detour ends up in the delivered price.
To understand who really decides these classifications and these rules, read the Fundamental: “International institutions: who really sets the rules.”
You’ll learn why a binding resolution can be cancelled by a single veto, how real power sits in voting procedures rather than in the founding texts, and why major powers can sidestep the rules without consequence.
Read the Fundamental →
