Day 16: Three Vessels, 44 Hostages — Honour 25 Enters Week 3; Sward Day 15; MT Eureka Day 9; Pirates Abandoned UAE Dhow Fahad-4 May 4

Somalia's simultaneous piracy crisis continued on May 11, 2026, with all three main hijacked vessels still under pirate control and no ransom agreement confirmed for any of them. The Palau-flagged fuel tanker Honour 25 (17 multinational crew: 10 Pakistanis, 4 Indonesians, 1 Indian, 1 Sri Lankan, 1 Myanmar national) entered its 16th day of captivity since the April 25 seizure off Puntland, with the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust (Pakistan) reporting negotiations deadlocked at a reported $7 million pirate demand. The general cargo vessel Sward (15 crew: 13 Syrian nationals, 2 Indian nationals) was on Day 15 since its April 27 seizure near Garacad. The Togo-flagged product tanker MT Eureka (12 crew, Egyptian and Indian nationals, ~2,800 tons of diesel) was on Day 9 since its May 2 seizure near Yemen's Shabwa coast, with the vessel now in Somali waters. Total simultaneous hostages: 44 — the most since Somalia's 2012 piracy peak era. In a related development, Somali pirates had on May 4 abandoned the UAE-flagged dhow Fahad-4 (seized in late April off Dhinowda) after failing to use it as a mothership for further attacks and running out of supplies — the first significant piracy setback since the crisis began, but not impacting the three main captive vessels. EU NAVFOR Atalanta and Combined Task Force 151 maintained regional presence but no rescue operation had been attempted. JMIC's 'severe' piracy threat level remained in effect. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry had formally requested enhanced international cooperation and India's Navy committed naval assets to the region. Iran War-related diversion of coalition naval attention from counter-piracy duties was identified by EU NAVFOR as a structural driver of the resurgence.