Armed men seized the Honour 25 product tanker off the coast of Hafun this week. The hijacking marks a terrifying resurgence of Somali piracy, which was thought to be a relic of 2011. A second cargo ship reported being shot at by a small boat, forcing its security team to return fire with warning shots. "Commercial shipping is again facing the scourge," warned maritime journalist Marcus Hand. The Indian Ocean has become a playground for hijackers looking to exploit the chaos.

The timing couldn't be worse for global transit. Nearly 1,000 ships and 20,000 crew members are currently stranded in the Arabian Gulf due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz. With the US, Israel, and Iran engaged in a kinetic confrontation, the regional security vacuum has allowed pirates to return to the hunt. The hijacking of the Honour 25 is a sharp reminder that the sea remains a lawless frontier.

Read together, the return of piracy and the closure of Hormuz represent a total collapse of logistical sovereignty. No filing has seen a direct causal link between the Iran war and the Somali hijackings, but the thread linking these events is clear: when the world's navies are distracted by high-altitude missile exchanges, the low-tech pirate returns to the dhow. For our readers, this means higher insurance premiums and more "logistical friction" in the fuel supply. The sea is once again a place where only the best-guarded can pass.