Somali pirates kill five crew on hijacked tanker off Somalia

September 30, 2026 at 07:39 AM2 min

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Somali pirates killed five crew members aboard the Palau-flagged tanker MT Honour 25 off Somalia before security forces rescued the ship, Puntland authorities said Tuesday. The dead included three Pakistanis, one Myanmar national and one Indian. Four other crew members were injured in the hijacking, which began April 21.

Key Facts

The MT Honour 25 was carrying 18,500 barrels of oil when pirates seized it off Somalia on April 21.
Puntland's Information Ministry said a rescue mission freed the ship and captured 16 suspected pirates.
The Puntland Maritime Police Force said the vessel was safe and under government control.
At least 15 attacks have been reported off Somalia since April, according to officials.

The Hijacking

The MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker, was seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia on April 21. Authorities said the vessel was carrying 18,500 barrels of oil at the time of the hijacking. The Information Ministry of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia, announced the deaths on Tuesday. The deaths appear to be the first at the hands of Somali pirates in more than a decade.

Rescue Operation

A rescue mission freed the ship and captured 16 suspected pirates, according to the Puntland Information Ministry. Before the operation began, the pirates on board killed five crew members, the ministry said. The dead included three from Pakistan, one from Myanmar and one from India. Four other crew members, three Pakistanis and one Indian, were injured. The Puntland Maritime Police Force said the vessel was safe and under government control.

Piracy Resurgence

The rescue follows another operation last week in which the maritime police freed the Sibu 1, a tanker sanctioned by the US that Somali pirates had hijacked in August. In that operation, 28 of the 41 pirates arrested later escaped while being transferred to jail, and several Puntland security officials accused local police of complicity. At least 15 attacks have been reported off Somalia since April, according to officials. A previous wave of piracy from 2008 to 2014 disrupted one of the world's busiest shipping routes, cost the global economy billions of dollars and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.