2024 in piracy

2024 in piracy included 33 reports of maritime piracy and armed robbery against ships to the International Maritime Bureau during the first quarter of the year. During this time, 35 seafarers were taken hostage, and nine were kidnapped.^[1]

Piracy surged in the Gulf of Aden at the start of the year.^[2] Increased incidents of piracy and hijacking in the Somali basin continued to be reported.^[3] When Houthis began attacking international shipping in the Red Sea, the year before, Somali pirates seized the opportunity to increase their attacks on ships off the Horn of Africa.^[4][5]

Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea extended beyond the Gaza war to, as stated by a Houthi spokesman in January 2024, response to "American-British aggression against our country". US Central Command then stated that the Houthi attacks "have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza" and that Houthis had "fired indiscriminately into the Red Sea" to target vessels, affecting more than 40 nations.^[6]

In March, shipping routes reported as the most dangerous in the world due to piracy (aside from hijackings and other incidents in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden related to the Gaza war) were identified as: the Singapore Strait, Gulf of Guinea and the Strait of Malacca.^[7]

From November 2023 to June 2024, more than 50 ships were attacked by Houthi rebels, resulting in the deaths of three sailors, and a hijacking. US military responded to the missile strikes in the Arabian and Red Seas with a series of attacks on the rebels' radar sites, which facilitated the targeting of maritime vessels; US Central Command reported seven radar sites destroyed in June.^[8]

On 12 June, Houthi militants launched their first unmanned, remote-controlled USVs laden with explosives, sinking the MV Tutor, and killing one Filipino crewman. The following month, armed private maritime security contractors destroyed another Houthi drone boat as it approached the (unidentified) merchant ship that they were aboard.^[9][10]

In September, the ICC IMB reported that sea piracy and armed robbery incidents were at the lowest levels recorded since 1994, though related crew safety risks persisted,^[11] due to sharp increases in kidnappings and in violence toward crew, as reported in July.^[12]