Somali Forces Retake Hijacked Tanker; Five Crew Killed — SkimNews
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- Puntland Maritime Police Force killed or discovered dead five crew members aboard the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 (three Pakistanis, one Indian, one Myanmar national) before launching a rescue operation off Dharin-baar in Bandar Beyla District on September 30, 2026, and apprehended 16 suspected pirates.
- The European Union Naval Force confirmed the tanker was hijacked in April 2026 while carrying about 17 crew members — mostly Pakistani nationals — and a cargo of 18,500 barrels of oil products bound for Mogadishu.
- Puntland authorities said pirates offered to surrender while concealing the crew members' deaths, according to The Daily Somali, with operations continuing to locate remaining pirates.
- MT Honour 25 is now under Puntland government control and described as safe, with BBC Somali reporting the crew comprised 10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan, and one Myanmar national.
- Pirates in the same Puntland waters released a second tanker, the Togo-flagged MT Eureka, the same day, handing over all 12 crew — eight Egyptians and four Indians — unharmed after setting parts of the vessel ablaze and siphoning its 20,400-barrel fuel cargo during five months of captivity since a May 2 hijacking off Yemen.
Why it matters: The deaths aboard MT Honour 25 — and the pirates' alleged attempt to conceal them while negotiating surrender — expose the lethal cost of the renewed Somali piracy wave, with two major hijackings concluded in a single day affecting crew from at least six countries. The capture of 16 suspects offers Puntland authorities a rare chance to prosecute, but the parallel MT Eureka hijacking, in which pirates walked away after ransacking and torching the ship, underscores that enforcement has not yet deterred hijackings that began as far back as April 2026.
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