Somali forces rescue oil tanker, five crew killed by pirates during operation

Somali security forces recovered the MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker hijacked by pirates on April 21, after more than five months in captivity. The Puntland Maritime Police Force conducted a planned operation in the Dharin-Bar area of Bandar Beyla district on September 29, during which five crew members were killed by pirates and four others were injured.

According to Puntland Deputy Information Minister Bile Qabowsade and confirmed by multiple sources, the dead included three Pakistani nationals, one Indian, and one national of Myanmar. The injured comprised three Pakistanis and one Indian. Pakistani survivors Hussain Yousuf and Imran Ali, who contacted the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, reported that when pirates came under pressure from advancing security forces and began retreating, they opened indiscriminate fire on crew members before fleeing the vessel. The pirates also damaged the ship's steering system, rendering it inoperable; the vessel was subsequently towed to shore by a Somali naval vessel.

The tanker carried 18,500 barrels of oil and had 17–19 crew members on board at the time of hijacking, including 10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan, and one Myanmar national. During captivity, pirates initially demanded $3 million in ransom, later reducing the figure to $1.9 million and then $1 million. Months passed with minimal progress in negotiations, and crew members released emotional appeals reporting shortages of clean water, food, and medicine. Pakistani families launched international appeals to foreign governments, the United Nations, and the International Maritime Organisation for intervention.

Puntland Maritime Police apprehended 16 suspected pirates during the operation (initially reported as 21), though some suspected pirates remained at large. The deaths represent the first pirate-related fatalities on a commercial vessel in more than a decade and occur amid a documented resurgence of piracy off Somalia's coast. The operation follows another Puntland rescue of the Sibu 1 tanker weeks earlier, though 28 of 41 pirates arrested in that operation later escaped during jail transfer.

Pakistani authorities confirmed involvement of the Ministry of Human Rights and the Foreign Office. The Ansar Burney Trust, a human rights organisation that facilitated previous pirate negotiations, stated the International Maritime Organisation had contacted it to coordinate return of injured crew and bodies to their home countries. Regional experts have attributed the resurgence of Somali piracy in part to broader geopolitical instability in the region.