IMO Advances Red Sea Project to Boost Yemen Maritime Safety

IMO Pushes Regional Coordination Off Yemen

According to a report by Maritime Executive, the International Maritime Organization is moving forward with its Red Sea Project, an initiative aimed at strengthening security and situational awareness across the Horn of Africa and Yemeni waters. The effort comes at a time when shipping through this corridor remains under persistent threat from piracy and regional instability.

Workshop Lays Groundwork for Information-Sharing Centers

From June 22 to 25, 2026, the IMO backed a four-day workshop in Aden for officials from the internationally-recognized Republic of Yemen government, run jointly with the EU-funded Crisis Response Project for the Red Sea and the Western Indian Ocean. Held at the Ministry of Transport, the session gathered representatives from the various Yemeni bodies responsible for monitoring and managing the country’s waters.

The central aim was to map out a plan for setting up two coordinating bodies: a National Maritime Information Sharing Centre, to be housed at the Yemeni Coastguard’s headquarters and already operating in a basic form, and a Regional Maritime Information Sharing Centre located nearby at the Yemen Maritime Affairs Authority on the Aden waterfront. The IMO wants both centers built around the Djibouti Code of Conduct/Jeddah Amendment’s 2023 standard operating procedures for information sharing. One notable obstacle: those procedures still haven’t been translated into Arabic, meaning that will need to happen early in the rollout.

The broader intent behind the IMO-EU initiative is regional cooperation, allowing coastal states nearby to exchange both data and standardized response procedures for everyday reporting as well as emergencies.

Coastguard Capacity-Building Runs in Parallel

A separate, Saudi-, UK-, and EU-backed effort is focused on building up the operational capacity of the Yemeni Coastguard. The UK has funded the deployment of two patrol vessels, the Aden (IMO 4698611) and the Mayun, now stationed at Perim Island. This program has also improved coordination between the Coastguard and maritime patrol units run by the National Resistance Forces active in the southern Red Sea.

Political Friction and Rising Piracy Complicate the Picture

Progress faces real obstacles on the ground. A power struggle has emerged after Minister of Interior Ibrahim Haidan attempted to remove Major General Khaled Ali Mohammed Al Qumali from his post leading the Coastguard — a move that Saudi Arabia blocked. Such internal rivalries tend to surface whenever a particular ministry or agency secures foreign funding, prompting others to compete for a share.

Meanwhile, Somali-based piracy is on the rise in Yemeni waters. The IMO Secretary General has called for the immediate release of 44 seafarers held hostage since March off Puntland, taken from three tankers: the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 (IMO 1099735), the Togo-registered Eureka (IMO 1022823), and the St Kitts & Nevis-flagged Sward (IMO 917424402).

Adding to the uncertainty, relations between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia have worsened, with peace talks — which would have included Saudi financial support and an end to the blockade — currently stalled. Renewed internal conflict in Yemen could reignite attacks against vessels transiting these waters.

What This Means for Owners and Operators

For ship owners, managers, and charterers routing vessels through the Gulf of Aden and southern Red Sea, this patchwork of overlapping initiatives underscores that improved information-sharing infrastructure is still very much a work in progress rather than an operational reality. Institutional rivalries within Yemen, unresolved translation gaps in shared procedures, and the fragile state of Houthi-Saudi relations all mean that situational awareness in these waters cannot yet be taken for granted. Against this backdrop, thorough voyage planning, close monitoring of security advisories, and rigorous pre- and post-transit condition surveys of hulls, machinery, and cargo remain essential risk-management practices — particularly for vessels that may need to alter routing or hold position amid resurgent piracy or renewed hostilities. Until the National and Regional Maritime Information Sharing Centres are fully functional and regionally harmonized, operators would be wise to treat official coordination structures in the region as still maturing rather than fully reliable.

Reviewed by Ibrahim Halil Ceylan, Marine Surveyor at Apeks Marine.