Puntland retakes hijacked tanker; five crew members are dead
Puntland security forces retook the MT Honour 25, held by pirates since April, but five crew members died before the rescue, regional officials said. Four others were reported injured. The dead included sailors from Pakistan, India and Myanmar. Authorities blame the pirates, while the precise circumstances of the killings have not been independently established. The outcome brings a human toll to renewed piracy off Somalia.
Geopolitics··Evening
The tanker is retaken after five reported deaths
Puntland security forces retook the MT Honour 25 after pirates had held the tanker off Somalia since April. Regional officials said five crew members died before the recovery operation and four others were injured. They identified the dead as three Pakistanis, one Indian and one Myanmar national. The authorities blamed the pirates, but the precise circumstances of the deaths have not been independently established. The rescue ended months of captivity for the vessel while leaving families with a grave loss. Puntland officials also reported detentions and a search for suspects who escaped. Published accounts carried different arrest totals, so that number does not settle the sequence of the rescue. The firmer shared account is that the tanker is back under Puntland control and five sailors are dead. Both the death toll and the attribution of responsibility originate with regional authorities.[1], [2]
How the sailors died remains disputed
Puntland's maritime police said the sailors were killed before its forces began the operation and did not provide a detailed account of how it happened. Somalia Today also recorded an earlier account from surviving crew and a Pakistani welfare group that placed the shooting as security forces closed in. These accounts disagree on the sequence. Neither establishes the exact timing or responsibility through independent forensic evidence, so the deaths should remain attributed rather than described as a settled reconstruction. The tanker had 17 crew members when it was seized in April while carrying petroleum products towards Mogadishu. It remained anchored near the Puntland coast between Xaafun and Bander Beyla during the captivity. Families repeatedly sought help and described shortages of food, clean water and medicine. The long captivity gives the recovery weight beyond the immediate operation, while unanswered questions about the sailors’ final hours remain consequential.[2]
The rescue lands amid renewed piracy
Piracy off Somalia was much less common after international naval operations following 2011, but attacks and hijackings have risen again in recent years. The Honour 25 case is a specific fatal outcome within that wider trend. Puntland has said it will continue looking for suspects who escaped and pursuing maritime crime along its coast. That pledge does not clarify how the five crew members died; it sets out the authorities' next steps after recovering the ship. Another hijacked tanker was recovered in the same period, but it was a separate operation. For the Honour 25 crew, the immediate consequence is the end of captivity alongside five reported deaths and four injuries. Establishing what happened aboard the ship before the rescue would require evidence beyond the official statements and the conflicting chronology now available.[1], [2]
