Ships and seafarers increasingly caught in the crossfire of unrelated wars

Ships and seafarers increasingly caught in the crossfire of unrelated wars

Four regions – the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, the waters off Somalia, and the Black Sea – are now simultaneously active theatres of danger, on a scale the shipping industry has not seen before.Vessels and seafarers are being trapped and attacked in conflicts that have nothing to do with the ships themselves.Damien Chevalier the Director, of the Maritime Safety Division at the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) spoke to UN News about the scale of the threat and what’s being done to protect ships and crews.What crisis is the shipping industry facing? This is the first time so many vessels and seafarers have been threatened across multiple regions at once. The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is unprecedented in terms of the number of vessels (2000) and seafarers (20,000) that were impacted at the beginning of the conflict.

© IMO

Damien Chevallier, Director of the Maritime Safety Division at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The industry now faces a combination of crises: not just Hormuz, but Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and a sharp rise in piracy near Somalia, where seafarers are held hostage. There has also been a significant increase in attacks in the Black Sea, where parties to the conflict are using drones to target oil tankers and grain-carrying vessels.Why is there an increase in piracy off Somalia? Naval assets are more focused on the threats in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz, and so pirates have taken the opportunity to operate, particularly against smaller, easier-to-attack bulk carriers. A recent meeting on maritime law enforcement focused heavily on counter-piracy, given the surge in incidents and the deteriorating security situation in Somalia. Somalia is working on new anti-piracy legislation, which could help address a key gap; the lack of a legal framework to prosecute captured pirates humanely, even when naval assets are present.What is happening in the Black Sea?There is no direct link between what is happening in the Black Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, so, in that sense, it is a separate crisis.