IMB recorded 51 incidents in January–September 2026, down from 116 a year earlier. Somali pirates carried out all eight hijackings and accounted for 94% of crew hostages in the global tally.
A letter dated 9 October alleges US broadcasts threatened Iranian crews in Persian and sometimes urged them to leave their ships. Tehran requested action and circulation of its complaint to IMO members.
A fourth person has been charged over a July incident involving three Filipino seafarers near Avonmouth Docks, which police have recorded as a suspected hate crime.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez has condemned the fatal attack on cargo ship TIHAMAH off Al Mokha, Yemen, after several seafarers were confirmed dead.
The IMO has urged shipping companies to put crew safety first after attacks on merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz caused seafarer casualties. The agency also warned operators to use only confirmed information when making navigational decisions in the high-risk corridor.
Seafarers on IBF-covered ships can now refuse voyages through the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East Gulf after the threat level reached its highest category. The new arrangement includes repatriation rights, two months of basic wage compensation, higher pay in the zone, and doubled compensation in death or disability cases.
An Indian seafarer has died after tanker MKD Vyom was struck by a projectile in the Gulf of Oman. The incident occurred amid rising security tensions affecting tanker routes near the Strait of Hormuz.
A tanker identified as Valery Gorchakov caught fire in Rostov-on-Don after a reported Ukrainian drone strike, killing two crew and highlighting rising risks to Black Sea shipping and seafarers.
Christiania Gas is still trying to contact the pirates who abducted nine crew from LPG tanker CGas Saturn in the Gulf of Guinea, after the remaining four seafarers sailed the ship to a safe berth in West Africa.
