{"id":865,"date":"2026-09-30T11:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/egypt-confirms-eureka-crew-released-after-puntland-pirates-set-the-tanker-on-fire\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T11:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:34:25","slug":"egypt-confirms-eureka-crew-released-after-puntland-pirates-set-the-tanker-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/egypt-confirms-eureka-crew-released-after-puntland-pirates-set-the-tanker-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt confirms Eureka crew released after Puntland pirates set the tanker on fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Egypt\u2019s foreign ministry announced on Wednesday, 30 September, that eight Egyptian sailors held aboard the Togo-flagged tanker M\/T Eureka off Somalia\u2019s Puntland region since 2 May have been released following high-level diplomatic contacts. Foreign ministry spokesman Ambassador Nader Zaki said Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had instructed Egypt\u2019s embassy in Mogadishu to receive the sailors, check on their well-being and arrange their return to Egypt on the earliest available flight. Ahram Online carried the statement the same day. That Wednesday consular confirmation is the primary for this note. It is not a rewrite of this morning\u2019s dedicated Honour 25 recovery, and it is not a Hormuz or Red Sea war-risk file.<\/p>\n

Somali and Indian reporting had already described Tuesday\u2019s shore-side handover. The Daily Somali, cited by India Today on Wednesday, said nearly 30 armed pirates disembarked from Eureka off Puntland\u2019s Karkaar region, handed over all 12 crew members \u2014 eight Egyptians and four Indians \u2014 unharmed to the local community, damaged the vessel and set parts of it on fire before fleeing. Horseed Media, writing on 30 September, said the Eureka crew were landed in Bandar-beyla district of Karkaar after being collected from Hulcaanood \/ Hul-Aanood, that all 12 were reported well, and that they were being transferred to the Puntland administration. Drop Site News, reporting from Mogadishu on Tuesday from Puntland security officials, said pirates on Eureka set the tanker on fire once the Honour 25 boarding was under way, took the crew at gunpoint onto small boats to the fishing settlement of Hol-Caanood, handed them to local residents and continued fleeing. Operators should treat the Egypt ministry line as the flag-state consular product for the eight Egyptians, and the Somali-side accounts as the hull, fire and remaining-four-Indian file, and should not collapse Eureka into Honour 25\u2019s five-dead boarding.<\/p>\n

Operation ATALANTA \/ MSCIO identified the hijacked tanker as EUREKA, IMO 1022823, after Yemen Coast Guard reported the seizure at about 05:00 UTC on 2 May at 13\u00b049\u2032N 048\u00b028\u2032E while the ship was at anchorage off Qana Port, Shabwa. Atalanta later placed the hull at 09\u00b050\u2032N 050\u00b054\u2032E and kept Eureka, Honour 25 and Sward on the same monitored list until Sward\u2019s 11 September release. Seatrade, citing Vanguard, described a Togo-flagged chemical\/products tanker of about 3,353 deadweight tonnes, owned by Royal Shipping Lines in Dubai. Al-Mahriah, using tracking data, said the ship had left Fujairah about eight days before the hijack, had called Dubai and Ajman, and was owned by Royal Shipping Lines Inc, registered in Sharjah\u2019s Hamriyah Free Zone. Daily Somali put the cargo at about 20,400 barrels of fuel, with substantial volumes siphoned and sold at sea during captivity. Drop Site put the original diesel cargo at about 20,400 barrels, worth an estimated $4.3 million. Wednesday\u2019s Egypt statement did not republish an IMO, a remaining-cargo figure or a fire-damage survey. Do not invent a discharge state or a pollution volume that those primaries did not give.<\/p>\n

Five months at anchorage off Qana, then a fire as Honour 25 was boarded<\/h2>\n

Eureka was taken on 2 May while waiting off Yemen\u2019s Port of Qana, in the first-wave reporting, and was held in the Puntland coastal cluster that later included Honour 25, Sward, Asana and Seamull \/ Sibu 1. This blog recorded Sward\u2019s ransom release near Garacad on 13 September, Puntland\u2019s recovery of Sibu 1 south of Garacad on 26 September, and this morning\u2019s Honour 25 boarding in which five crew were killed. Tuesday\u2013Wednesday\u2019s Eureka crew handover is the next named event in that set. It is not evidence that the Somali basin is clear.<\/p>\n

The humanitarian and ransom file had already been public for months. Egypt said it had monitored the hijacking since May, that Abdelatty urged Somali authorities in July to expedite the sailors\u2019 release, that in August Somali authorities were maintaining daily contact with the kidnappers using ties with local tribes, and that on 3 September the ministry reaffirmed contacts with Somali and Yemeni authorities and the vessel\u2019s owner. The consular sector met families during captivity; the Mogadishu embassy facilitated contact between the sailors and relatives. The Wednesday statement said the release followed directives from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. It did not say a ransom was paid, and it did not describe a Puntland boarding of Eureka. Do not recast the Egypt product as a second Honour 25-style assault.<\/p>\n

Drop Site\u2019s Puntland officials said the decision to attack the hijacked vessels was taken on 9 September after weeks of surveillance confirmed that pirates on Honour 25 and Eureka had been offloading barrels to shore for sale to local fuel importers \u2014 \u201ctwo profits,\u201d one official said, from cargo and from ransom. EUNAVFOR drones provided surveillance ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Honour 25 raid off Dbarin-baar, those officials said. Once that boarding started, Eureka\u2019s pirates set the tanker ablaze, took the 12 hostages ashore and fled; Drop Site put about 30 gunmen still being pursued. Horseed separately said pirates caused major damage and set fire before leaving. That is a fire, cargo-theft and crew-handover case on a named small products tanker, not a closed \u201call 12 safe, ship undamaged\u201d story.<\/p>\n

One named hull remains in pirate hands in the set this blog has been tracking. Drop Site said MT Asana is still held. Gulf News \/ AFP reporting from Puntland officials had previously identified Asana as IMO 9035838, a Tanzanian-flagged oil\/chemical tanker hijacked on 16 July in the Gulf of Aden, with conflicting crew counts. Tuesday\u2019s Eureka release does not close Asana, and it does not reverse last week\u2019s Sibu 1 custody failure, in which 28 captured pirates later escaped while being transferred to jail.<\/p>\n

Operational implications for a released crew and a burned small tanker<\/h2>\n

The first job is repatriation and medical screening, not a victory statement. Egypt\u2019s embassy in Mogadishu has been told to receive the eight Egyptians and book the earliest flight home. The four Indian seafarers were reported unharmed in Daily Somali \/ India Today and Horseed accounts, but Wednesday\u2019s Egypt statement does not speak for them. Owners, managers, the Togo flag, Indian missions and P&I still have to confirm identities, next of kin, fitness to travel and whether any of the 12 remain in Bandar-beyla, Hul-Aanood or another Puntland facility. Honour 25 showed the same week that a \u201crecovery\u201d can include dead and injured crew. Eureka\u2019s public line so far is unharmed \u2014 treat that as the current reporting, not as a completed company investigation.<\/p>\n

The hull is a separate casualty. A 20-year-old ~3,353 dwt products tanker that pirates damaged and set on fire after months of cargo siphoning is a salvage, pollution, class and wreck-removal problem even if the crew walk ashore. Horseed and Drop Site both describe fire; neither published a remaining-onboard quantity, a sheen, or a port of refuge. Class, flag and P&I should assume tank, piping and accommodation damage until a surveyor is on board. Charterers and cargo interests should assume the original ~20,400-barrel diesel parcel is not intact. Royal Shipping Lines \/ Hamriyah ownership does not, by itself, tell operators whether the wreck will be towed, sold, or left as a coastal hazard off Karkaar.<\/p>\n

The piracy pattern is still live. Atalanta\u2019s May products placed Eureka\u2019s boarding at an anchorage off Qana, not in a high-seas citadel event. Small tankers waiting off Yemeni load or discharge ports, AIS-dark stretches between the Gulf of Aden and Puntland, and barrel-to-shore theft are the operating picture, not a one-off Honour 25 raid. BMP-MS, citadel drills, and reporting to UKMTO and MSCIO remain the baseline inside 150 nautical miles of the Somali coast between Mogadishu and Hafun, which is still the Atalanta advice from the Eureka monitoring updates. Tuesday\u2019s ~30 gunmen who reached shore, and last week\u2019s Sibu 1 escapes, are why a \u201ccrew released\u201d headline is not a basin clearance.<\/p>\n

Insurance and K&R files should stay open until the company, flag and clubs have written confirmation of all 12 people, a hull location, and a fire\/pollution survey. Earlier unused reporting had put a multi-million-dollar Eureka ransom demand on the table; Egypt\u2019s Wednesday statement did not confirm payment. Do not instruct masters from rumour. Do instruct them from the named IMO, the 2 May Qana anchorage position, and the fact that Asana is still held.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n