A product tanker has been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden around 136 nm east of Al Mukalla, Yemen.UKMTO said a tanker broadcast a distress call on VHF 16, saying they had been approached by an unauthorised vessel on their westbound transit of the Gulf. The status of the crew is not currently known. The agency cited military authorities as the source of the report.
In an update, UKMTO said it had received confirmation that the ship had been boarded by six armed persons who had taken control of the vessel and redirected it toward Somalia.
Maritime security firm Vanguard Tech identified the vessel as 2001-built Seamull, also known as Sibu 1. The Equasis database has the 32,000 dwt vessel as falsely flagged in Eritrea.
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the vessel — then flagged in Palau — in December 2025 for transporting Iranian petroleum products.
The latest attack in the region follows the hijacking of 1,401 dwt general cargo ship Lutuf on 17 August off the coast of Somalia by eight armed persons.
In its last advisory note on 18 August, JMIC expanded on the UKMTO report of the Lutuf incident, saying the crew was mustered to the citadel but the suspected pirates gained access and relocated the crew to the bridge.
The suspected pirates were using AK-47 type weapons, it said.
The JMIC advisory said there were five vessels being held in the Somali Coast and Somali Basin region: Palau-flagged product tanker Honour 25 hijacked 21 April 2026, Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged general cargo ship Sward, hijacked 26 April, Togo-flagged product tanker Eureka, hijacked 2 May 2026, Tanzania-flagged product/chemical tanker Asana, hijacked 17 July 2026, and Lutuf.
JMIC’s threat assessment for the Somali Coast and Somali Basin remained at Moderate in the advisory, meaning an attack is possible but not likely.