{"id":1020,"date":"2026-10-16T11:33:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/imb-records-a-34-year-piracy-low-as-somali-hijackings-raise-the-crew-toll\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T11:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:34:40","slug":"imb-records-a-34-year-piracy-low-as-somali-hijackings-raise-the-crew-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/imb-records-a-34-year-piracy-low-as-somali-hijackings-raise-the-crew-toll\/","title":{"rendered":"IMB records a 34-year piracy low as Somali hijackings raise the crew toll"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ICC International Maritime Bureau published its January\u2013September 2026 piracy and armed-robbery statement on 15 October. The working primary is the IMB \/ ICC Commercial Crime Services note issued in London that day. Hellenic Shipping News, World Ports and Baird Maritime carried the English read on 16 October. The headline number is a 34-year low. The operational number is not. Fifty-one incidents were recorded worldwide, down from 116 in the same period of 2025, the lowest nine-month total since 1992. One hundred and five crew were directly affected, up from 72 a year earlier. Somali hijackings account for most of that rise. This is a reporting-centre product, not a UKMTO warning, not a JMIC update, and not a Hormuz projectile file.<\/p>\n

The Piracy Reporting Centre\u2019s breakdown is specific. Thirty-six vessels were boarded, eight were hijacked, four were fired upon and three incidents were attempted boardings. In 86 percent of cases the perpetrators gained access while the ship was at anchor or steaming. Most boardings were at night. Weapons were identified in 53 percent of the reported incidents. IMB Director Michael Howlett put the two facts next to each other: incident levels are at their lowest in more than three decades, and the recent uptick in Somali activity is a reminder that the threat remains. He said incidents this year have shown that strict adherence to Best Management Practices remains one of the most effective ways to deter hijacking attempts and protect crews. That is the operator line. It is not a declaration that the Horn of Africa has gone quiet.<\/p>\n

What the 51 actually contain<\/h2>\n

Somali pirates were responsible for all eight hijackings in the nine-month file and for 94 percent of crew taken hostage worldwide. IMB says most hijacked vessels have been released with their crews reported safe. It also says ships that implemented the latest BMP continued to deter hijacking attempts even in cases where pirates managed to board. The bureau is explicit that this year\u2019s Somali activity is not comparable in scale or reach to the deep-sea piracy of 2008\u20132013. Do not brief Thursday\u2019s note as a return to that era, and do not brief it as a closed Horn of Africa file.<\/p>\n

The IMB note then prints the exception that sits on every DPA\u2019s crew sheet. Puntland authorities reported in late September that five crew members were killed and five injured before the Palau-flagged product tanker Honour 25, hijacked on 21 April 2026, was recovered. That sentence is IMB\u2019s attributed print of a Puntland report. It is not a new UKMTO product and not a new Puntland ministry statement issued on 15 October. Stay with IMB\u2019s \u201cfive killed and five injured.\u201d Puntland\u2019s late-September information-ministry line, carried earlier by Al Jazeera, Reuters and AFP, named three Pakistani nationals, one Indian national and one Myanmar national among the dead, and four injured. Do not collapse those two counts. The dedicated Honour 25 recovery remains a September coastal-state file. Thursday\u2019s IMB statement is what puts the fatality onto the global nine-month tape as the bureau\u2019s own wrap.<\/p>\n

Open-register colour only, not an IMB IMO print: Honour 25 \/ Honor 25, IMO 1099735 on World Ports\u2019 English read of the same statement. IMB\u2019s 15 October note named the Palau flag, the product-tanker type, the 21 April hijack date and the late-September recovery. It did not print an IMO number, a cargo volume, a ransom demand or a Puntland arrest tally. World Ports\u2019 colour on 16 pirates captured and on RPGs \/ AK-47s is newspaper increment, not the ICC primary.<\/p>\n

Gulf of Guinea, Singapore Straits, Indonesia, Philippines<\/h2>\n

Two incidents were reported from Gulf of Guinea waters in the first nine months, and none in the last quarter. IMB commends the littoral states for keeping the numbers there. That is a quarterly zero, not a declaration that the Bight of Benin or the approaches to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Tema or Lom\u00e9 can drop BMP, citadel drills or night-deck controls. Howlett\u2019s second quoted line is the one that applies in every theatre: it is important to maintain momentum through continued vigilance and timely reporting of all incidents.<\/p>\n

The Singapore Straits recorded 13 incidents, down from 73 in the same period of 2025. Two crew were taken hostage, a further two were threatened and one was injured. In more than 69 percent of those incidents the perpetrators were armed with guns or knives, and they boarded every targeted vessel. The count fell. The boarding rate did not. A master who treats \u201c13 versus 73\u201d as permission to thin night lookouts in the Traffic Separation Scheme will have misread the note. IMB commends the authorities for the reduction and still flags the residual risk in those waters.<\/p>\n

The Indonesian archipelago continued a decline: six incidents against nine a year earlier. Weapons were reported in one incident, in which one crew member was also taken hostage. The Philippines went the other way. Nine anchored vessels were boarded \u2014 six in Manila and three in Batangas \u2014 against none in the equivalent 2025 period. Two crew were taken hostage. Weapons were reported in five of those cases. That is an anchorage file. It is not a Singapore Strait file and not a Somali hijack file. A DPA with ships idle in Manila Bay or Batangas cannot treat the global 51 as cover for those nine boardings.<\/p>\n

Operational implications<\/h2>\n

For a CSO writing a voyage-specific threat assessment, Thursday is a redistribution of risk, not a holiday. The global numerator is down by more than half. The crew-harm numerator is up. The hijack column is a Somali column. The boarding column is still dominated by night access at anchor or on passage, with weapons in just over half of all reported cases. BMP MS, registration with UKMTO and MSCIO in the voluntary reporting area, citadel arrangements, and a night-deck posture that assumes the perpetrator will get on board remain the controls IMB is pointing at. The bureau\u2019s own deterrence line is that BMP has stopped hijacks even after a boarding. That is a citadel-and-harden story, not a \u201cnobody is coming\u201d story.<\/p>\n

Do not fold Thursday into this morning\u2019s dedicated JMIC Update 105. Update 105 is a Hormuz SEVERE \/ projectile-and-UAV file with 149 confirmed vessel incidents since 1 March. IMB\u2019s 51 are piracy and armed robbery. A projectile hit in the Strait of Hormuz is not an IMB hijacking. A Puntland recovery of Honour 25 is not a Bab el-Mandeb Attack on the JMIC table. Keep the two tapes separate in the master\u2019s pack. Keep Gulf of Guinea\u2019s quarterly zero separate from the Philippines\u2019 nine anchorage boardings. Keep Singapore\u2019s 13 boarded ships separate from Somalia\u2019s eight hijacks.<\/p>\n

Charterers and P&I desks will be asked whether the 34-year low changes additional premiums, armed-guard clauses or Indian Ocean routing via the Cape. Thursday\u2019s note does not reprint a Joint War Committee list, a BMP geographic box, or a underwriter circular. It reprints Howlett: the threat remains, report everything, keep BMP. A fixture that drops a citadel requirement on the strength of \u201c51 versus 116\u201d will be wrong. A fixture that treats Honour 25\u2019s five dead as a closed Somali chapter will also be wrong. Most hijacked ships in the IMB file were released with crews safe. Honour 25 was the named exception on the same page.<\/p>\n

Do not recast Thursday as a Hormuz product, as a rewrite of Honour 25\u2019s September recovery, as a Gulf of Guinea all-clear, as a Singapore Strait all-clear, or as an IMB naming of a new hijack after Honour 25. The confirmed facts are a 15 October IMB \/ ICC statement, 51 incidents, 36 boarded, eight hijacked, four fired upon, three attempted, 86 percent access, 53 percent weapons, 105 crew affected, Somali responsibility for all eight hijacks and 94 percent of hostages, Honour 25 as IMB\u2019s attributed fatality wrap, Gulf of Guinea two \/ Q3 zero, Singapore Straits 13, Indonesia six, Philippines nine at anchor.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n