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The International Maritime Organization has verified 80 attacks on international shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the Middle East conflict began on 28 February 2026, killing at least 22 seafarers. Three weeks ago that ledger stood at 70 attacks and 19 deaths, and IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez used his statement in London this week to warn that the violence is no longer confined to one chokepoint or one actor.
Politics Insight
18 September 2026 • 4 min read
"We are reaching a point where these conflicts are being used as a pretext to attack merchant vessels and innocent seafarers," the IMO Secretary-General told delegates in London. Ten more verified attacks and three more deaths in eighteen days is not a headline. It is a trend line, and it is the one SADC importers should be watching when they decide how much routing risk to carry.
Dominguez issued the warning on Wednesday at the IMO's Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers. On 28 August, six months into the crisis, the organisation had verified 70 attacks and 19 seafarer deaths around Hormuz. By 15 September the count was 80 attacks and at least 22 deaths, with many more injured.
The recent incidents behind those numbers are specific. Two crew were killed aboard the Sidr on 31 August. The Hercules Star was damaged on 9 September in an attack that killed one seafarer. The El Gaia was attacked in the strait on 12 September, leaving the vessel damaged and two seafarers missing.
Crews trapped: The IMO said in late August that as many as 400 ships carrying around 6 000 seafarers had been unable to safely depart the Persian Gulf since the conflict began. (Source: IMO via gCaptain, 2026)
The warning reached well beyond Hormuz. In the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, the IMO said dozens of fatalities have reportedly resulted from attacks on international shipping in recent months, while cautioning that precise casualty figures remain difficult to verify. Violence has also returned to the Red Sea, where four seafarers were killed in a Houthi attack on a merchant vessel on 11 August.
Dominguez was careful not to hand the problem to a single government. "In the Strait of Hormuz, it is not only one country attacking merchant vessels," he said. "In the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, it is not only one country attacking merchant vessels." That framing matters, because a threat with several authors is much harder to negotiate away than one with a single address. The IMO Council reaffirmed in July that transit passage through straits used for international navigation must not be threatened, impeded or suspended, and called for a coordinated return to unhindered navigation through Hormuz. The attack count has risen since.
Dominguez conceded that resolving the underlying conflicts falls outside the IMO's mandate, and asked member states to carry the consequences for shipping back to their own governments and to other United Nations bodies. Read plainly, that is the regulator saying it has no lever to pull. Nobody should expect an institutional fix in this quarter.
For SADC importers and exporters, the verified attack count is the most honest available measure of how durable any routing decision is. Carriers returning services to the Suez corridor have all said their routing is conditional on stability. A rising attack ledger across three waterways is the clearest signal that the condition is not yet met, and that the schedule you were quoted this month may not be the schedule you sail on next month.
Treat the attack count as a routing-durability indicator and check it before committing to a delivery date that depends on a Red Sea transit. Ask your forwarder whether war-risk and additional-cost clauses in your current rate agreement are triggered by a routing change, and who pays. And if your cargo insurance has not been reviewed since February, review it now, because several protection and indemnity arrangements have tightened around these waters.
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Visit Laaimylorrie.com| About the Author | |
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Andre Klynsmith Entrepreneur & Technology Enthusiast Andre's expertise spans technology, blockchain, transport, and logistics -- with a passion for innovation and driving positive change across industries. |
| Source: gCaptain View source › | 17 September 2026 |
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