Somali piracy is back – fuelled by political turmoil, aid cuts and the Iran war
By Anja Shortland, Professor in Political Economy, King's College London
Federico Varese, Professor of Criminology and Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
On the evening of April 26, the Egyptian merchant vessel Sward was hijacked by armed men a few miles off the Somali coast. It was steered towards an anchorage near the port of Garacad in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in north-eastern Somalia.
Over the following days, further armed men joined the Sward as well as an interpreter tasked with negotiating a ransom with the shipowner. At the time of writing, the ship remains under
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Friday, May 29, 2026