The humanitarian crisis aboard the Palau-flagged tanker MT HONOUR 25 is worsening, with 17 seafarers still being held more than two months after the vessel was hijacked in waters off Somalia. 

The warning was issued through the DCoC/JA, the International Maritime Organisation, IMO-backed regional maritime security framework for the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, whose 22 signatory states said the situation on board had reached a critical stage. 

According to the statement, all 17 crew members remain alive, but five, including the Master, are now suffering from health problems. Food supplies have reportedly been reduced to rice alone, while the available water is unsafe for drinking. The crew are also facing a direct security threat, after armed pirates guarding the tanker reportedly exchanged gunfire with a rival group that attempted to approach the vessel. 

The Master’s appeal for help has turned the case from a security incident into a humanitarian emergency. Behind the language of piracy, armed robbery and maritime risk are seafarers trapped at sea, cut off from their families and exposed to fear, illness, hunger and violence. 

The MT HONOUR 25 is not the only vessel involved. The crews of SWARD and MV EUREKA are also being held in difficult conditions, reinforcing concerns that Somali piracy, long considered contained, is again testing the safety of one of the world’s most sensitive maritime regions. 

The warning comes as IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez called for urgent international efforts to secure the release of 44 seafarers being held aboard MT HONOUR 25, EUREKA and SWARD. The IMO said the crews have endured months in captivity, with food and water running critically low and the threat of violence continuing. 

In his appeal to the IMO Council in London this week, Dominguez said the cases showed that the threat posed by piracy and armed robbery against seafarers “has not receded” and still requires coordinated action. 

The concern has also reached the families of those on board. In May, Reuters reported that relatives of Pakistani crew members aboard MT HONOUR 25 had protested in Karachi, urging stronger action to bring them home. Ten of the 17 crew members on board were Pakistani, according to the report. 

The wider security picture is equally worrying. The IMB report published in April said global piracy and armed robbery incidents had fallen to their lowest first-quarter level since 1991, but warned that Somali maritime piracy activity was continuing and that vigilance remained essential. 

That warning now feels even sharper. Operation ATALANTA, the EU naval mission operating in the region, confirmed piracy incidents involving MT HONOUR 25 and SWARD in April, while later industry updates have continued to point to the risk of Pirate Action Groups operating in the Somali Basin and Gulf of Aden. 

The latest appeal calls for urgent, coordinated and decisive international intervention to secure the immediate, safe and unconditional release of all crews being held. It also urges the Federal Government of Somalia, the flag State, shipowners, insurers, humanitarian organisations, regional partners and the wider international community to intensify every available diplomatic, operational, humanitarian and legal effort. 

However, release alone will not end the ordeal. The crews are likely to need medical care, psychological support and trauma rehabilitation after prolonged captivity, deteriorating living conditions and the constant threat of violence. 

For the maritime community, the message is clear. Piracy in the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden may have been suppressed over the past decade, but it has not disappeared. More importantly, seafarers must not be left to pay the price for that complacency. The priority now is simple. Bring them home alive and make sure they are not forgotten once they are free.