May 15, 2025: For Egypt, the Suez Canal is a major source of foreign currency, producing more than $10 billion in a good year. There have been fewer good years lately. The problem is chaos in the African nation of Somalia on the east coast of the Red Sea and the Arab nation of Yemen on the west coast. In Somalia Al Shabab Islamic terrorists and smugglers turned pirates have been attacking shipping for over a decade.

African states have assembled a new peacekeeping force for operations in Somalia. This time Egypt is sending about a thousand troops.

At the start of 2025 the UN authorized a new peacekeeping force of 11,900 troops. In February the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Islamic terrorists in Puntland, which is in northern Somalia. Soldiers and militiamen killed over 120 Al Shabab attackers.

In Yemen the Houthi clan militia, supported by Iran has been increasingly active firing Iranian missiles and drones at commercial shipping. In late 2024 piracy returned to Somalia, a year after similar activity began in Yemen. This time the pirates had a difficult time of it because of all the foreign warships in the area dealing with Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthi rebels use Iranian drones equipped with reconnaissance capability to locate targets off the coast and accurately fire missiles at ships passing through the narrow, 26 kilometers wide, Bab-el-Mandeb straits off southwestern Yemen. This forces ships, almost all of which are trying to use the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal, to take the longer and more expensive and time consuming route around the southern tip of Africa. So far nearly 3,000 ships have gone around the southern tip of Africa rather than trying to go through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal.

Some ships avoid or ignore the missiles and continue north to the Suez Canal. These ships discovered they faced another threat in that the Yemen rebels sent armed men in small boats to board these large cargo ships and force the crews to take them to towns on the nearby Somali coast known to be pirate friendly in the past. The warships off the Yemen coast have been more aggressive to deal with this, often launching a helicopter with armed men to land on the captured ship and deal with the pirates. Sometimes the pirates are warned and leave the hijacked ship before the helicopter arrives.

Worldwide, attacks on cargo ships, and an occasional tanker, are still a problem. In 2024 there were 116 attacks worldwide, compared to 120 attacks in and 115 in 2022. Many of these ships were boarded and the crews robbed. There are also attempts to kidnap crew members and hold them for ransom.

The hostages are used for taking control of the ship and moving it to a different location. Pirates rarely have any knowledge or experience operating these ships. Kidnapped crew are taken ashore and held until a ransom is paid. In December 2023 a large cargo ship was hijacked and taken to Somalia. This was the first hijacking since 2017.

As recently as 2018 piracy was still a problem off the Somali coast, just not the kind that creates headlines in the international mass media. The pirates adapted and in 2017 there were nine pirate attacks off the Somali coast, up from two in 2016. This was notable because worldwide pirate activity hit a 22 year low with 188 attacks in 2017, mostly far away from Somalia in places like the west coast of Africa and Southeast Asia. Those 188 attacks created damage worth $7 billion, with 80 percent of it absorbed by the ships and their owners. Higher insurance rates and operating costs were the major additional costs. That is an issue off Somalia where higher insurance costs are still a problem and getting worse because of the ineffectiveness of defending warships this time.

Back in 2011 there were 327 attacks off the Somali coast. The solution was an international anti-piracy effort that continues. But shipping companies still have to pay higher insurance rates for their ships that operate in the danger zone extending far out into the Indian Ocean. At the end of 2017 the maritime insurance companies had real reason to be worried. In November 2017, for the first time since 2014, the international anti-piracy patrol arrested six Somali pirates who were caught firing on and trying to board ships off the Somali coast.

Now the peacekeepers and western special operations forces are returning. Since East African nations suffer from the disrupted trade, they are sending more of their soldiers to help reduce the mayhem and attacks on shipping emanating from Somalia

Major suppliers of foreign aid restored suspended aid programs. The United States ordered several hundred special operations and other troops to return to Somalia. American Special Forces and SEAL operators were again training and advising their Somali counterparts. The American troops in Somalia also handled intelligence collection and monitoring things in general.

This continued from a major American special operations base in neighboring Djibouti as well as the use of American drones, also based in Djibouti, to search for Islamic terrorists and carry out airstrikes when the opportunity presents itself. After a year or so of indecision by the Americans, the U.S. resumed regular air strikes against Al Shabab and other groups interfering with aid shipments or the new Somali government. This led to over 200 drone airstrikes that killed over a thousand al Shabab and other Islamic terrorist group members.