Hijacking reported as maritime routes already face severe disruptions and diversions due to Strait of Hormuz blockage.

Pirates are suspected of having hijacked a cargo vessel off the coast of Somalia,⁠ officials and maritime security groups report.

The reported hijacking on Monday was the second off Somalia in less than a week. The attack was on the Sward, which was carrying cement from Suez, Egypt, to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa and was flying the flag of St Kitts and Nevis.

The attacks come as maritime routes already face severe disruptions due to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz during the United States-Israeli war on Iran.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the Sward was hijacked 6 nautical miles (11km) northeast of the Somali coastal town of Garacad.

The British ⁠maritime security group Vanguard said the ship’s 15-person crew comprised two Indian nationals and 13 Syrians.

“The ⁠vessel is currently assessed to be ⁠under pirate control and proceeding toward the Somali coastline,” it said. “The Puntland Maritime Police Force has been notified.”

An operations officer from that force told The Associated Press news agency that nine pirates had boarded the Sward and taken control.

“The ship is currently under the control of armed men, and we are monitoring the situation,” he said.

Somali pirates caused havoc in the waters off the Horn of Africa nation’s ⁠long coastline from 2008 to 2018. International naval patrols and improved maritime security greatly reduced their attacks.

However, pirate activity started to pick up again in late 2023 during a decline in anti-piracy patrols and the relocation of funds to counter the threat posed by Houthi rebels in Yemen on shipping around the Bab al-Mandeb, a strait that connects the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

On Wednesday, an oil tanker that left a Red Sea port in the breakaway region of Somaliland was seized in waters off Puntland while heading to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

In November, armed assailants firing machineguns and rocket launchers attacked a commercial tanker off the coast of Mogadishu.

The essential shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, has blocked the flow of a substantial portion of petroleum that powers the global economy.

Some ships have been diverted to the Suez Canal or taken the much longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa to make deliveries to Asia and Europe. Some oil shipments from Saudi Arabia have been diverted by pipeline to the Red Sea, bypassing the strait.