Pirates boarded an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia yesterday, in what is believed to be the first hijacking in the region in five years.

Over two dozen men attacked the 1,800-dwt Aris 13 (built 1991) on Monday afternoon off the country’s northern coast, Bloomberg reports.

About eight crew were on the Sri Lankan-flagged ship, owned by United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Flair Shipping.

John Steed, of the aid group Oceans Beyond Piracy, told Reuters: “The ship reported it was being followed by two skiffs yesterday afternoon. Then it disappeared.”

This would be the first hijacking of a commercial ship by Somali pirates since 2012.

"Risk is still there"

Bryher Bailey, head of global sales and marketing at Ambrey Risk, told TradeWinds: "Yesterday’s reported hijack demonstrates that there remains a continued risk to commercial shipping in the area.

"Although a return to piracy of the scale seen in 2009-2012 is unlikely, shipowners should continue to review their security policies in response – particularly given the proximity of this hijack to the attack of the tanker CPO Korea in October and the successful, albeit short-lived boarding of the Iranian fishing vessel Imran."

"It was going to happen"

Gerry Northwood, chief operating officer at MAST, told TradeWinds: "With the current political situation in Somalia and the increasing confidence of those transiting through the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, it was very likely that such an attack was going to occur.

"The characteristics of the hijack are similar to some of the early piracy activity we saw around 2005, and those responsible will have analyzed the changing economic and political situation around them and decided that now was an opportune time to launch an attack.

"Whilst this vessel was almost certainly a soft target, those who orchestrated the attack would have been acutely aware of the decreasing military presence in the area and the increasing numbers of ships which are not sufficiently capable of defending themselves against a hijack."

As TradeWinds reported yesterday, kidnappings of seafarers rose by 44% last year but piracy hot spots have shifted over the past years from Somalia to the Gulf of Guinea and the Sulu and Celebes Seas around the Philippines.

Piracy on the rise again?

Three attacks have been reported over the past week, involving a Knutsen OAS Shipping LNG carrier and a bulker owned by Greece’s Goldenport Shipmanagement.

Somali piracy has lessened over the past five years but frustrations have been rising among local fishermen, including former pirates, due to illegal fishing in local waters.

A local resident told the Associated Press: “They have been sailing through the ocean in search for a foreign ship to hijack since yesterday morning and found this ship and boarded it.

“Foreign fishermen destroyed their livelihoods and deprived them from proper fishing.”