The International Maritime organisation has urged urgent action after reports that the general cargo vessel SEAMULL was hijacked on 20 August 2026, a development flagged by reports on 25 August 2026. The IMO’s Secretary‑General, Mr Arsenio Dominguez, issued a statement following the reports, warning of a renewed pattern of attacks in the Gulf of Aden.
Mr Dominguez said that "Shipping challenges are on the rise", and he emphasised the scale of the recent incidents in the region. His statement noted that the latest reported seizure increased the number of vessels held in the area, underlining the gravity of the situation for international shipping.
Immediate incident
According to the report, the SEAMULL was taken on 20 August 2026 and, as the IMO statement makes clear, the episode brought the tally to "a sixth vessel is being held". The phrasing used in the statement highlights that the vessel was taken by pirates and armed robbers, and that the event followed a string of recent incidents in the same sea area.
The timing of the hijacking and the tally given in the IMO statement were presented to illustrate what the organisation described as a resurgence of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The Secretary‑General’s reaction came directly after those incident reports were made public.
Call for urgent action
In his statement Mr Dominguez called for prompt measures to address the renewed threat, underlining the need for an effective response to the upsurge in attacks. The IMO framing connects the single incident involving the SEAMULL to a broader trend of increased attacks that, in the organisation’s view, requires immediate attention.
Sources carried the story on 25 August 2026 and cited the IMO statement in full context; the report served as the vehicle for the Secretary‑General’s appeal to the international maritime community. The organisation’s public comment made clear that the recent incidents in the Gulf of Aden had prompted alarm at the highest levels of maritime governance.
The Secretary‑General’s wording drew attention to both the number of vessels currently reported as detained and to the apparent uptick in attacks within the same operating area. By placing the seizure of the SEAMULL within the sequence of recent events, the statement sought to convey urgency and the need for coordinated attention.
The reports item and the IMO statement together form the basis of the public account released on 25 August 2026; they set out the sequence of the reported hijacking on 20 August and the organisation’s subsequent warning. For now the published statement stands as the IMO’s public response to the reported resumption of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.