Day 23: Honour 25 Pirates Issue $3M Ransom Demand — Crew Starving, Pakistan Summoned to Negotiate Directly

On May 18, 2026 — Day 23 of the Honour 25 hostage crisis — Somali pirates holding the Palau-flagged fuel tanker and its 17-member multinational crew (10 Pakistanis, 4 Indonesians, 1 Indian, 1 Sri Lankan, 1 Myanmar national) issued a formal $3 million ransom demand and specifically called for the Pakistani government to engage in direct negotiations, rejecting third-party mediation. The Ansar Burney Trust, a Pakistani human rights organization, confirmed the demand and the direct contact with Pakistani officials. Pakistani families of the hostages reported that the crew had exhausted their food, medicine, and clean water supplies — hostages were reportedly receiving only one serving of boiled rice per day, raising urgent concerns about their physical condition after more than three weeks in captivity. The Honour 25 was hijacked approximately 30 nautical miles offshore between Hafun and Bandarbeyla in Puntland's coastal waters on April 25, 2026. The vessel was carrying 18,500 barrels of fuel oil en route from Berbera to Mogadishu when intercepted. The $3 million demand is separate from the $7 million demand previously attributed to the group by other sources — analysts assessed the May 18 figure as targeted specifically at the Pakistani government for the 10 Pakistani crew members' release, reflecting pirates' tactic of simultaneously demanding ransoms from multiple states with nationals aboard. Simultaneously, the cargo vessel Sward (15 crew, hijacked April 26 near Garacad) entered Day 22 and the product tanker MT Eureka (12 crew, $10M demand, hijacked May 2) entered Day 16 — maintaining all three vessels and 44 total hostages under pirate control. EU NAVFOR Atalanta and Combined Task Force 151 maintained surveillance but no rescue or interdiction operations were reported.