A Floating Prison

The hijacking of MT Eureka was not the first incident of this kind in this region in recent months. Data from the EU’s Operation Atalanta shows that the European Maritime Safety Agency recorded 84 maritime security incidents between May 2025 and June 2026. These included confirmed hijackings, attempted piracy, suspicious activities linked to armed groups, and incidents of unauthorized boarding of commercial vessels.

The media and public information section of the EU’s anti-piracy mission, Operation Atalanta, which operates within its strategic communications branch, reported that the EU Naval Force issued regular threat assessments and security alerts concerning piracy and suspicious approaches to commercial vessels.

These assessments include, according to Operation Atalanta, detailed weekly maps of piracy risk in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin, which are updated continuously to reflect the evolving regional security picture.

Operation Atlanta says it has continued to strongly recommend to commercial vessels that they adhere to standard maritime security procedures and immediately report any suspicious activity.

International law professor Dr Mohammed Abdullah Badr says that dealing with areas at risk of piracy is not a haphazard process but is governed by a set of security rules and procedures established by the International Maritime Organization. These include conducting a prior risk assessment, identifying the safest routes, and increasing preparedness on board through measures known as “ship hardening.” This means reinforcing points of entry, activating emergency plans, and making sure there are areas where the crew can shelter.

Badr points out that the protection of mariners in areas classified as high-risk is no longer something left to the discretion of operating companies, but is now a legal obligation set out in international conventions and standards. Chief among these are the Maritime Labour Convention, the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, and the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code.

A video released by the pirates, however, casts doubts on the level of security was actually in place on board the Eureka. The vessel appears to have none of the barbed wire that is supposed to be in place along its sides to prevent attackers from boarding. It also set out without an armed security team, and there are no signs of any alarm systems or other proactive measures to alert the crew to the approach of suspicious boats.

Marine engineer Mohamed Al-Abyad thinks that the absence of such measures leaves crews at direct risk of piracy and makes ships easy prey for armed gangs.

Nearly two months have now passed and, for eight Egyptian families, life is no longer measured in days, but in the few phone calls and rare messages coming from their relatives at sea. Akram Mokhtar says that the pirates used his kidnapped son Moemen’s mobile phone to contact the owner of the tanker and the authorities and demand a ransom for the release of the hostages.

Akram Mokhtar tells of an arduous negotiation process to secure the release of his son and his 11 fellow sailors: “The day after the hijacking, the pirates demanded a ransom of three million dollars and I just didn’t even know where to start.” One of Moemen’s colleagues advised him to contact the families of the ship’s crew.

Mokhtar then began tracking down the sailors’ families one by one, until he had brought them all together in a WhatsApp group. Starting May 3, 2026 seeking help wherever it mighty be found.

Working in parallel, the families approached both official and unofficial bodies. They made social media appeals, and pursued international organizations, trade unions, and maritime authorities, hoping for a single lead that might guide them to their sons who held captive at sea.

Mokhtar says that the ship’s owner, who lives in the UAE, at first ignored any attempts to contact the pirates and that, once the families had managed to find his phone number, he refused to answer their calls. Mokhtar says that he even refused to take calls from any Egyptian number that might be linked to the sailors’ families. Mokhtar says this was “because of the high ransom the pirates demanded in early May - three million dollars – which he thought was more than the ship itself was worth”.

This enraged the pirates, who threatened to withhold food and water from the crew, and then increased the ransom demand from three million to ten million dollars. They put more pressure on the hostages and even assaulted the captain.

A few days later, on May 18, 2026, three of the crew members appeared in a video kneeling on the deck, their hands bound, with armed men around them firing repeatedly into the air above their heads. The sound of gunfire mixed with the men’s cries for help: “Come and get us, come and get us, Hajj Khalid!”

Khalid is the owner of the MT Eureka, which flies the flag of Togo and bears the international IMO number 1022823.

The sailors’ contracts indicate that the vessel is owned by a company called Gulf Marine Shipping, registered in the Marshall Islands, a well-known location for registering offshore companies.

However, our review of company records told a different story. The address listed in the contracts indicates that the company is based in the United Arab Emirates, while its email domain links it to another Emirati firm, Gulf Fuel for Fuel & Oil Derivatives Trading. These findings cast doubt on the company’s stated structure and raise the question of who ultimately owns it.

We found evidence linking the two companies in an official document - Decision No. (2) of 2024 - from the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure. This forbids two vessels from entering the UAE’s ports and territorial waters, including its Exclusive Economic Zone. The ships are Hana 1 and Dahab - later renamed Eureka - both linked to Gulf Fuel for Fuel and Oil Derivatives Trading.

The document states that the vessels were banned due to violations involving maritime activities and the transport of petroleum products without the required licences. It also cites concerns that inaccurate or misleading documentation had been submitted regarding the vessels’ arrivals from ports in neighbouring countries.

When we looked into Gulf Fuel for Fuel & Oil Derivatives Trading LLC, we found that it is owned equally by Egyptian national Khaled Mohammed Al-Ashri and Emirati citizen Fatmeh Mahmoud Hasan.

Documents also revealed that the two partners jointly own a property company called Al-Andalus City Building Contracting, which carried out developments in the UAE and is registered at the same address.

We contacted the UAE Ministry of Energy to ask if the ban on the Eureka was still in force.

We also contacted the ship’s owner, to give him the chance to reply to accusations that the tanker, fully laden and crewed, had headed towards a high-risk area with inadequate safety measures in place. We have yet to receive a response.

On June 12, 2026, for the first time in weeks, it seemed that an end to the crew’s ordeal might be in sight. After more than forty days of stalled negotiations, the hostage families received the news they had waited so long to hear.

“The ship’s owner finally responded,” says Moemen’s father Akram Mokhtar. “After we’d contacted him countless times, he finally got in touch with the pirates. And they accepted his offer and cut the ransom from ten million dollars to two million.”

Reducing the ransom did not mean that the hostages were any closer to freedom, however. Akram Mokhtar explains that the pirates then imposed an additional condition: a helicopter had to fly the ransom money to where they were, out at sea, and airdrop it.

“It looks like they wanted to avoid any financial transfers that could be traced and reveal their identities or open them up to prosecution,” says Mokhtar. “And at the same time they wanted to steer clear of areas where international forces were deployed.”

While the families struggled to come to terms with this new condition, they were confronted with another development that complicated matters further.

According to Mokhtar, whose account was corroborated by other hostages’ families, the ship’s owner told them that he had initially considered transferring the ransom through the United Arab Emirates. However, he later abandoned that plan and suggested sending the money through Yemen instead, adding that he was still awaiting confirmation from the Egyptian authorities on whether they would facilitate the transfer.

After some two months of negotiations, the stumbling block was no longer the size of the ransom, but the more difficult question of how two million dollars could be delivered to pirates hiding out in the middle of the ocean.

After that, contact with the ship’s crew was lost once again. Their families received just the odd message from Moemen, pleading for the ransom to be paid and telling of the harsh conditions he and the other captured crewmembers were having to endure. To this day, those involved have been unable to agree on a way to deliver the money to the pirates.

But then, on June 25, came the most terrifying message Mokhtar had received since the crisis began.

The pirates gave the captives and the authorities a three-day deadline to meet their demands. “They told us we had 72 hours to get them the ransom the way they wanted, or they’d start shooting the crew.”

They also threatened in the message to move half the crew to a mountainous area and hold them there to ensure the ransom was actually delivered.

Amira, wife of the kidnapped sailor Mohammed Rady, says: “My husband and his companions have lost all hope… we’re scared they might commit suicide.”

And Moemen sent his wife Amnia a short voice message saying:

Somewhere out on the ocean the ransom money is waiting to find its way to the pirates, while 12 seamen wait endlessly to return home. Their families remain in limbo, waiting for a call to bring either news of a rescue – or news they cannot bear to contemplate.

This investigation was produced in collaboration with Al-Masry Al-Youm.