Somali pirates have raised the ransom to $10 million!

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Recently, pirate activities in Somalia have been on the rise again. The latest news indicates that Somali pirates have raised the ransom demand for a hijacked oil tanker to $10 million. At the same time, several merchant ships have been repeatedly hijacked or attacked in the waters near Somalia. Some family members of the detained crew members have publicly stated that the detained crew members are facing shortages of food and drinking water, and can only survive by relying on "dirty water" and a small amount of rice. 

In the context where international naval forces are being constrained by multiple crises in the Red Sea, the Hormuz Strait and the Arabian Sea, the traditional areas of pirate activity are once again becoming dangerous.
The families of the Pakistani crew members of the hijacked oil tanker "Honor 25" held a protest in Karachi. 

The ransom has risen from several million dollars to 10 million dollars. 

According to reports from Middle East Monitor, The Maritime Executive and TradeWinds, the hijacked vessel was the oil tanker M/T Eureka. The vessel was flying the flag of Togo, had a deadweight capacity of approximately 3,300 tons, was built in 2006, and was carrying about 2,800 tons of diesel at the time of the incident. The vessel was boarded by armed personnel in the offshore area of Shabwa Province, Yemen, near the Qana port, and was subsequently taken towards the direction of Somalia. 
Initially, the ransom demand proposed by the pirates was around 3 million to 3.5 million US dollars. However, according to the families of the crew members, as the negotiations failed to make rapid progress, the pirates subsequently raised the ransom demand to 10 million US dollars. The families also stated that the pirates increased the number of armed guards on board and strictly restricted the food and water supply for the crew. 
The composition of the crew of this ship varies slightly among different media reports at present. Public reports generally confirm that there are 8 Egyptian crew members on board, along with crew members from South Asian countries. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has stated that it is monitoring the situation and has asked the embassy in Mogadishu to follow up on the safety of the crew. 
In the past two weeks, four ships have been hijacked. It is evident that piracy in Somalia is on the rise again. 
In fact, Eureka was not the only ship that was hijacked recently. Before that, there had been several consecutive hijacking incidents in the waters near Somalia, and at least four ships had been controlled by pirates or had been in their control for a while. 
On April 20th, the Bangletan Maritime Police reported that a fishing vessel named Alkhary 2 had been hijacked by a "piracy operation team". It is widely believed that such hijacked fishing vessels are likely to be transformed by pirates into temporary "mother ships", which are used to expand the operation radius and provide cover for subsequent attacks on merchant ships. 
Just one day later, on April 21st, the oil tanker Honour 25 was hijacked by pirates in the Bantlan area of Somalia, about 30 nautical miles off the coast. Reuters reported that the vessel was flying the Palau flag and had 17 crew members on board, of whom 10 were from Pakistan. On May 13th, the families of the detained crew members held a protest near the Karachi Port in Pakistan, demanding that the government take action to rescue the crew. The families disclosed that the situation on board was extremely serious; some crew members could only drink the sewage water in the cabin and relied on a small amount of rice to survive. 
On April 25th, another dhaw ship was also hijacked near Dhinowda in Somalia. MSCIO later updated that the ship had been released and the crew was safe. However, this incident is believed to be related to the subsequent hijacking of Sward. 
On April 26th, the cargo ship Sward was once again seized by pirates in the offshore area of northern Somalia. The EUNAVFOR "Atlanta Operation" confirmed that the vessel was hijacked near the Dhinowda area and stated that it is maintaining direct contact with the Somali authorities and continuously monitoring the two incidents, Honour 25 and Sward. 
That is to say, from April 20th to April 26th, within just one week, there have been four consecutive incidents where ships in the waters near Somalia were hijacked or were once hijacked. Additionally, on May 2nd, Eureka was boarded and taken towards the direction of Somalia. The frequency of Somali pirate activities has significantly increased. This indicates that Somali pirates are not acting sporadically but are instead reorganizing, committing crimes continuously, and possibly reactivating the "mother ship model" that was previously common. 
Why have Somali pirates returned? 
Somali pirates reached their peak between 2008 and 2012. Since then, with the strengthening of international naval escort, armed security, BMP anti-piracy measures, and coastal crackdown operations in Somalia, the associated risks have significantly decreased. 
But now, the situation is changing. 
On one hand, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden have long been under threat from the Houthi militants, and a large number of international naval forces have been diverted. On the other hand, the security situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea is tense, and more military resources have been deployed to the key waterways in the Middle East. Al Jazeera quoted an analysis as saying that some anti-piracy patrol forces have been transferred to the directions related to the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, which has created space for Somali pirates to re-engage in activities. 
The Guardian also pointed out that Somali pirates are taking advantage of the window of opportunity presented by the presence of international naval forces to re-approach other hotspots in the Middle East. They may now be better equipped than during the previous peak of piracy, being able to use GPS, satellite communication, and the hijacked dhows as mother ships to carry out operations in more distant waters. 
More importantly, the current targets of hijackings include oil tankers and fuel transport ships. Due to the escalation of energy transportation risks and the increase in cargo value caused by the conflicts in the Middle East, smaller oil tankers carrying fuel have a higher "ransom value" for pirates. This is also an important background for the rapid increase of the ransom demand in Eureka to 10 million US dollars. 
Conclusion: Pirates haven't vanished; they are merely waiting for an opportunity. 
The ransom for Eureka has been raised to $10 million, which is not just an escalation of a single ship hijacking incident. The signal it sends out is that Somali pirates are once again testing the response speed and resilience of the international maritime security system. 
When the international naval forces are distracted by multiple crises in the Red Sea, the Hormuz Strait and the Arabian Sea, when small and medium-sized oil tankers are transporting high-value fuel through high-risk waters, and when the governance capacity in certain regions remains weak, there is room for the Somali pirates to make a comeback. 
For the shipping industry, this is not merely a return to old risks; rather, it represents "superimposed risks" in a more complex risk environment. In the western Indian Ocean and the surrounding waters of the Middle East today, the safety of ships cannot be assessed based on a single sea area or a single threat alone.