Ships and seafarers increasingly caught in the crossfire of unrelated wars

The global shipping industry is confronting a “genuinely unprecedented” convergence of maritime crises, with vessels and seafarers being used as leverage in conflicts unrelated to them, according to UN News. On 8 September 2026, Damien Chevalier, Director of the Maritime Safety Division at the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), described how four regions are now simultaneously active theatres of danger. These are the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, the waters off Somalia, and the Black Sea. The scale is unlike anything the sector has previously encountered. Commercial shipping has become a deliberate instrument of geopolitical leverage between States.

The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz alone impacted 2,000 vessels and 20,000 seafarers at the beginning of the conflict. Houthi attacks continue in the Red Sea, while piracy near Somalia has surged, with seafarers held hostage. In the Black Sea, parties to the conflict are using drones to target oil tankers and grain-carrying vessels. Naval assets have been redirected to Red Sea and Hormuz threats, opening space for pirates to strike smaller bulk carriers. Somalia is drafting new anti-piracy legislation to close a legal gap in prosecuting captured pirates humanely.

Verifying information from the Black Sea remains difficult, and disinformation from warring parties is common. Ukraine’s grain ports are receiving only one or two vessels a day during harvest season, compared with the normal 20 to 30. The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil, meaning disruption affects inflation and living costs globally. Both the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea are also critical for fertilizer, and the latter for grain exports. The impact on food security is likely to be felt into next year, particularly in developing countries.

Chevalier emphasized the human cost of the escalating threats to commercial shipping. “Being a seafarer has become a genuinely dangerous profession,” he said. Seafarers are not trained to deal with threats linked to wider security issues or geopolitical situations. Substandard ships, fraudulent registries, and the fraudulent registration of ships add further risks that IMO is working to address. Attracting younger generations to the profession has become more difficult amid rising casualties across the Black Sea, Red Sea, and Strait of Hormuz.

The consequences of a workforce shortfall may not be visible for five to ten years, by which point it will be too late to address quickly. Any ship that is attacked may also become a threat to the marine environment. Wealthier nations can draw on strategic reserves, but this is only a short-term buffer before a second wave of crisis follows. Chevalier called for diplomacy, respect for humanitarian and international law, and constructive engagement through the UN rather than adversarial statements. He warned that the threat to shipping must not be normalized by focusing on arming ships.