#Eritrea-flagged tanker seized off #Yemen as #Somali piracy resurges An Eritrea-flagged oil tanker under U.S. sanctions for allegedly transporting Iranian petroleum products has been hijacked off Yemen and diverted toward Somalia, in the latest sign of a sharp resurgence of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The Sibu 1 was seized on Thursday by six armed individuals after being boarded about 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). The tanker, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in December 2025 for allegedly forming part of an Iranian “shadow fleet,” was reportedly redirected toward ⁠Somalia, according to Reuters. The incident marks at least the 13th vessel attacked this year off Somalia or in the Gulf of Aden, compared with just five such attacks recorded throughout 2025, according to International Maritime Bureau data and UKMTO reports. The resurgence follows years of relative calm after international naval operations helped suppress the major wave of Somali piracy between 2008 and 2014. Reuters reported that experts have linked the renewed piracy partly to the wider Iran conflict, including higher oil prices that make tankers more attractive targets and the redeployment of naval assets from anti-piracy operations toward the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea. Persistent poverty and insecurity in Somalia have also left the underlying drivers of piracy unresolved. “The piracy was always suppressed. It was never really fully eradicated,” said Timothy Walker, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. Meanwhile, researcher Jay Bahadur said the seizure of an Iran-linked tanker made him “very sceptical” of claims of Houthi involvement in the recent hijackings, although he pointed to longstanding links between Yemeni and Somali criminal networks involved in arms trafficking and human smuggling.