Aden (South24 Center)

A commercial vessel was damaged on Wednesday (July 1) in an RPG attack launched by an armed craft off Balhaf Port in Shabwa Governorate, South Yemen, in the latest incident pointing to a deteriorating maritime security environment across the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the vessel was targeted 76 nautical miles south of Balhaf by a craft carrying four armed personnel. The agency added that the attack caused damage to the vessel’s bridge.

UKMTO said the attacking craft left the vicinity of the vessel after the incident, but remained active in the area and could pose a threat to other ships. It urged vessels transiting the area to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity.

Earlier, UKMTO had reported that armed craft approached a vessel at the same location. Later, the master of a second vessel reported hearing small arms fire in the area, prompting the British maritime agency to issue a security advisory for ships transiting nearby waters.

UKMTO did not disclose the name, flag, ownership, or nationality of the targeted vessel. It also did not identify the party responsible for the attack.

The incident occurred off Balhaf, a strategic coastal area in Shabwa that hosts South Yemen’s liquefied natural gas export facility and lies on the Arabian Sea side of the southern maritime approaches.

Wednesday’s attack follows a series of similar incidents in the Gulf of Aden. About two weeks earlier, a vessel was attacked 105 nautical miles northeast of Aden after two small boats approached it and armed individuals opened fire. The onboard Armed Security Team returned fire, forcing the attackers to withdraw.

The region witnessed several similar incidents during June, including armed approaches and attacks carried out using small boats and small arms fire.

This pattern appears closer to piracy or armed robbery at sea than to the missile and drone attacks claimed by the Houthi group in the Red Sea.

The use of an RPG in Wednesday’s incident marks a more serious escalation in the pattern of small-boat attacks. Unlike missile or long-range drone attacks, such incidents require close-range contact with the target and are often associated with piracy, armed robbery, or irregular maritime groups operating from small craft.

The latest incident also comes amid growing international concern over a possible resurgence of piracy around the Horn of Africa. In April, suspected Somali pirates hijacked a fuel tanker off Puntland, while maritime monitoring bodies recorded several vessel seizures within days near the Somali coast.

Security analysts have warned that pirate networks may be exploiting the stretched capacity of international naval resources, as foreign forces remain focused on Houthi-related threats in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

In an analysis published in mid-June, South24 Center warned of rising indicators of renewed piracy activity in the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab. The center said the recurrence of armed approaches and attempted attacks on commercial vessels reflects a broader deterioration in the maritime security environment extending from Yemen’s coasts to the Horn of Africa.