Six Armed Men in Small Boat Attack Cargo Ship off Yemen

Armed guards on a cargo ship fought off attackers in a small boat off Yemen’s southern coast on Wednesday, forcing the assailants to retreat in the latest security scare along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The vessel was approached some 88 nautical miles (about 163 km) southwest of Balhaf, in the Gulf of Aden, said the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a Royal Navy-run co-ordination centre. Before the confrontation, a small craft with six armed men on board closed on the ship.

The attackers fired on and exchanged gunfire with the armed security team on board the vessel. Then the little boat drifted away and turned.

There were no reported casualties or damage. UKMTO issued Warning 065-26, stating that authorities were investigating, and advised ships in the area to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity.

No one has claimed responsibility.

Balhaf is on Yemen’s southern coast in Shabwa province, home to the country’s main liquefied natural gas export terminal and well south of the stretch of the Red Sea controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi movement. Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, controls this stretch of coastline.

In recent days, Yemen’s Houthis have threatened to renew attacks on ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea. Their military spokesman has declared a “complete ban on enemy navigation” in those waters and said enemy ships would be considered military targets.

But the attack came outside the Houthis’ typical area of operations. UKMTO recently warned of a renewed increase in piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the wider Somali Basin, noting there is at least one active group of pirates in the region.

Somali piracy, largely contained for years by international naval patrols, has shown some signs of revival as warships concentrate on the Houthi threat further north.

The encounter underscores why many merchant operators now have armed security teams on board vessels transiting the region. Again and again they have proven decisive in repelling boarding attempts and it seems they have done so here.

The Gulf of Aden channels traffic to the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a narrow 29 km-wide channel that separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea. Some 10% of world trade flows through it, including oil, gas and container cargo moving between Asia and Europe.

For shipowners, the incident is a reminder that the threat is far from over. The Houthis attacked commercial vessels with drones, missiles, mines and explosive boats in 2023 and 2024, causing many lines to re-route around southern Africa at huge cost.

Now the threat is doubled, as vessels headed to the southern Red Sea are exposed to danger from more than one quarter at once, with piracy resurged.