After a decade of calm, CNN: The Red Sea crisis brought back the pirates, and their relationship with the Houthis made them “more deadly”

CNN reported that Somali pirates have exploited the Red Sea crisis caused by Houthi attacks and the war in Gaza to return to the forefront after nearly a decade of calm.

Their resurgence came in the wake of a campaign by Yemen’s Houthi movement to target shipping in the Red Sea. Analysts believe the Red Sea crisis has diverted the attention of naval resources to combat piracy in the region and served as a distraction, allowing the pirates to return.

In November, a report published by Lloyd’s List, a shipping industry magazine, citing information provided by Seahawk Maritime Intelligence, warned that expanding ties between Somali pirates, the Houthis and other regional actors could seriously disrupt maritime trade along vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

In December 2023, a month after Iran-backed Houthi rebels began attacking commercial shipping, Somali pirates hijacked the MV Royen, a Maltese-flagged cargo ship coming from the Indian Ocean. It was the first successful hijacking of a commercial vessel since 2017.

Between January 1 and September 30, 2024, three ships were hijacked, two ships were boarded and fired upon, and three attempted attacks were reported in waters off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

The American network report , translated by "Yemeni Youth Net", said that the recent rise in piracy attacks has added another layer of complexity to global maritime trade, which is already suffering from strategic shocks resulting from the Red Sea crisis.

“We are now at a potential tipping point where any further disruption will be very tangible to consumers around the world. That is the critical concern,” said Ian Ralby, a senior fellow at the US Center for Maritime Strategy.

In February 2024, JPMorgan Chase & Co. calculated that the crisis had caused shipping costs from Asia to Europe to rise by about fivefold, with implications for the prices of imported goods — from clothing and electronics to gas and food grains.

To avoid Houthi strikes, commercial ships have diverted their route around the Cape of Good Hope, incurring an additional cost of $1 million per ship due to increased fuel, insurance and operating costs.

The International Monetary Fund said in a report issued in March 2024 that the Houthi attacks led to a 50% decline in trade in the first two months of 2024 compared to the previous year through the Suez Canal, the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe.

The report added that the longer route also resulted in an average 10-day delay in shipment delivery times, hurting companies with limited inventories.

CNN spoke to maritime security experts, economists, legal experts on piracy-related incidents, community representatives from affected areas in Somalia, and victims of recent attacks to explore what lies behind the recent increase in pirate attacks.

Today, Somali pirates operate a powerful network of people who work in specific roles: those who gather intelligence on potential targets, recruits who take part in attacks, skilled seamen responsible for controlling hijacked vessels—from large merchant ships to fishing boats—and financiers who bear the cost of operations, according to Troels Borshall Henningsen, an assistant professor at the Royal Danish Defence College.

According to the report, in late 2023, the Houthi Red Sea attacks destroyed the balance achieved by anti-piracy measures in the past decade and made piracy a profitable option again.

Since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Houthi rebels have attacked naval and commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea. Between November 2023 and October 2024, they launched approximately 190 strikes.

These deadly attacks using advanced weapons have prompted world powers to move their intelligence assets and warships from the Indian Ocean region to the Red Sea, said Borshall Henningsen.

Analysts believe the redistribution made merchant ships that were rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope vulnerable to piracy in the western Indian Ocean.

Experts say the UN Security Council’s decision in 2022 not to extend a resolution authorising international naval forces to neutralise piracy threats in Somali territorial waters – on the grounds that such operations exacerbate regional instability – was also a factor.

Today, there is concern about the growing capabilities of Somali pirates based on their alleged alliance with regional actors such as Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, and Houthi rebels.

The pirates' links to al-Shabaab were known before, but the alleged partnership with the Houthis has made them "more lethal than before," said Julil Ahmed, an expert on terrorist financing.

Ahmed added that the Houthis rely on pirates to smuggle oil and weapons, and they also exchange intelligence information about ships heading to the Red Sea via the Gulf of Aden.

The UN Panel of Experts on Yemen documented in its October 2024 report an increase in arms smuggling involving the Somali Al-Shabaab movement and the Houthis in Yemen.

According to a report issued by Lloyd's List, citing Sea Hawk Maritime Intelligence, "This strategic alliance allows the Houthis to impose their control over shipping routes while financing their operations through the proceeds of illicit piracy and arms smuggling."

Ahmed continues: "The political decisions that the new Trump administration will take, and he expects that the violent American response this time may lead to destabilizing the alliance."

The Houthis have pledged to halt their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, and on Israel, as long as a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds. However, they have stressed that attacks by the United States, the United Kingdom or Israel could lead to an escalation. On January 22, they released the crew of a cargo ship they had hijacked more than a year ago.

In his first week in office, President Donald Trump redesignated the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization,” days after outgoing President Joe Biden designated them as a “specially designated global terrorist entity.”

The Biden administration had previously rescinded the Houthis’ designation as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2021, citing the need to enable humanitarian aid to Yemen. Trump’s move has sparked speculation about how it will impact regional stability.