Maritime insecurity offshore Africa increased in 2025, with a multitude of threat actors demonstrating the capability and intent to stage attacks against commercial vessels within coastal and deep-water areas.
- In the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), piracy attacks are on the rise again. Nigeria’s riverine criminal groups remained the predominant driver of nearshore and creek attacks, while organised pirate networks demonstrated the capability to conduct offshore boardings and kidnappings up to 100NM from shore.
- Similarly, piracy off Somalia and in the wider western Indian Ocean resurged, re-emerging following a series of nearshore hijackings of fishing dhows and a late-year pattern of long-range attempted boardings enabled by motherships.
- In the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, 2025 maritime insecurity stemmed from limited but persistent Somali skiff activity near the western approaches of the Gulf of Aden and a continued, though reduced, pattern of hybrid conflict-related threats originating from Yemen-based Houthi rebels, with vessels encountering projectiles, Water-borne Improvised Explosive Devices (WBIED), and drones.
- Lastly, in Mozambique, Islamic State Mozambique (ISM) maintained the ability to conduct maritime attacks within internal and territorial waters offshore Cabo Delgado Province. However, most notably, this year recorded the first targeting of a foreign-flagged vessel to date.
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