Twenty-two Indian seafarers are among the crew members aboard two vessels seized by armed pirates off the coasts of Somalia and Yemen this week, The Indian Express reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The shipping companies operating the two vessels are reportedly in close contact with the government, while the Indian seafarers are deemed safe.
The two ships involved are the Eritrea-flagged oil products tanker Sibu 1, hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen's coast on Thursday, and the Cameroon-flagged general cargo carrier Lutuf, seized off Somalia's coast on Monday, the outlet reported.
Sibu 1 has 20 crew members on board, including 16 Indians, while Lutuf has 10 people on board, of whom six are Indian nationals.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre, in a post on X, said it had received a report of a tanker broadcasting a distress call 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, Yemen, after being approached by an unauthorised vessel while transiting the Gulf of Aden westward.
UKMTO also said six armed men had boarded the tanker, taken control of the vessel and were steering it towards Somalia.
A separate UKMTO alert, issued on August 17, stated that a cargo ship's company security officer reported that the vessel was boarded by eight unauthorized and armed persons four nautical miles south of Mareeyo, Somalia, who then took control of it.
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As per the report this warning corresponded to Lutuf, while the later one pertained to Sibu 1. Both ships had stopped transmitting their location as of Friday, suggesting the hijackers had switched off their transponders.
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Piracy incidents off Somalia, which had declined significantly over the past decade, have reportedly risen this year, with analysts attributing the uptick partly to international naval forces redirecting focus toward West Asia and the Strait of Hormuz.
India is the world's second-largest supplier of seafarers, contributing over 3,11,000 maritime professionals, about 12.2% of the global workforce, according to the BIMCO-ICS Seafarer Workforce Report 2026.
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