The group, consisting of 11 pirates, seized the vessel Fahad-4 in late April while it was sailing about 10 nautical miles off the coast near the Dhinowda area in northeastern Somalia.

So far, there has been no official information regarding the condition of the crew aboard the vessel, which was carrying lemons. The Somali government has also not yet publicly disclosed the vessel’s whereabouts.

Puntland security officials said the pirates operated from an area near the port town of Garacad, located approximately 600 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

After taking control of the vessel, the pirates attempted to use it to launch attacks on other ships navigating Somali waters.

One security official told AFP that the group eventually abandoned the vessel on May 4 after running low on supplies and failing to carry out further attacks due to heightened vigilance by ships traveling along the Somali coast in recent weeks.

The incident comes amid growing concerns over the resurgence of Somali piracy after years of declining maritime attacks in one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), which monitors maritime security in the Indian Ocean, stated that the threat level of piracy has now been raised to “very high” following a series of attacks targeting commercial vessels.

Maritime observers also reported that several recently hijacked ships remain under pirate control, including the Barbados-flagged oil tanker Honour 25, which was seized off the Puntland coast on April 21, and the Syrian-flagged vessel Sward.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, pirates also captured the Togo-flagged oil tanker Eureka before redirecting it toward the Somali coast.

Authorities have not yet officially identified the groups responsible for these attacks. In the past, hijackings have involved armed fishermen and groups linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda.

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