Signatory states to the Djibouti Code of Conduct and its Jeddah Amendment have agreed to establish a Combined DCoC Task Force intended to protect shipping from a reported resurgence of piracy in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide reported on 17 August 2026.
The announcement, as described in the report, says the new task force will offer a practical regional mechanism through which willing signatory states may carry out coordinated maritime operations to respond to the upturn in piracy incidents affecting those sea areas.
The language used in the notice underlines that participation is open to "willing" signatory states, signalling a cooperative but voluntary posture among the parties to the DCoC and its amendment rather than the imposition of a single central command or compulsory duty-binding arrangement.
Combined Task Force: scope and purpose
According to the report, the Combined DCoC Task Force is designed to bring together resources and effort at a regional level so that states bound by the Djibouti Code of Conduct and the Jeddah Amendment can align their responses to maritime criminality without relinquishing national authority over operations.
The formulation presented frames the task force principally as a mechanism for coordination, intended to streamline collective action and to offer a vehicle through which participating states can synchronise their maritime measures in response to the renewed threat of piracy in the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
Regional cooperation and next steps
The report makes clear that the initiative rests on the signatory states' agreement to form the task force and that further technical, legal and operational arrangements will fall to those states to determine as they move from declaration of intent to practical implementation.
Framed by the existing Djibouti Code of Conduct and the Jeddah Amendment, the Combined DCoC Task Force represents an effort to embed a regional response capability within the architecture that the signatory states already recognise, with the stated objective of protecting merchant shipping that transits the affected sea lanes.
The move reflects concern within the regional maritime community about a resurgence of piracy in the broad Western Indian Ocean area and the Gulf of Aden, and it signals a preference for a collective, regionally led approach rather than reliance on ad hoc or exclusively external measures, according to the reporting on 17 August 2026.
The reported agreement does not, in itself, disclose operational details, contributing states or timelines for deployment; it sets out the political decision to create a Combined DCoC Task Force as the organising framework through which willing signatory states can coordinate their maritime responses to the renewed piracy threat.
As presented in the Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide item, the Combined DCoC Task Force is the latest development in the Djibouti Code of Conduct and Jeddah Amendment framework, and it will be for the signatory states to define the modalities and sequences by which the mechanism is brought into active service in the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.