IMO Renews Warning as Attacks on Seafarers Escalate Globally

IMO Sounds the Alarm on Rising Attacks on Merchant Ships

The International Maritime Organization has issued a fresh and urgent appeal to its Member States: stop letting regional conflicts spill over into direct attacks on commercial shipping and the crews who operate it. According to a report by Maritime Executive, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez raised the alarm while addressing the organization’s Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers, which is meeting in London from September 14 to 18 to review safety standards for dangerous goods, bulk cargoes, and containers.

Dominguez’s message was blunt. He told delegates that ongoing geopolitical conflicts are increasingly being used as justification for strikes against merchant vessels and the seafarers aboard them, and he called directly for that practice to stop.

The Numbers Behind the Warning

The scale of the danger is stark. Since a conflict in the Middle East began on February 28, IMO has confirmed 80 separate attacks on international shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Those incidents have left at least 22 seafarers dead, with many more injured.

The Strait of Hormuz is not the only flashpoint. In the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, numerous fatalities have reportedly occurred from attacks on shipping over recent months, though IMO says exact figures remain difficult to confirm. Meanwhile, the Red Sea corridor — which had seen a relative lull — has flared up again, with a Houthi attack on a merchant vessel on August 11 killing four people.

Importantly, Dominguez stressed that responsibility for these attacks is not confined to a single state or actor in any of the three regions. He specifically noted that multiple parties are implicated in the Hormuz-area incidents, as well as in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, underscoring how diffuse and unpredictable the threat picture has become for commercial operators transiting these waters.

IMO’s Limits and Its Ask of Member States

Dominguez acknowledged that resolving the underlying geopolitical disputes driving these attacks falls outside IMO’s mandate. But he argued the organization cannot stay silent given how directly the fallout is hitting global maritime trade, supply chains, and the wider economy. His request to delegates was to carry these concerns back to their own governments and raise them through the appropriate channels at the United Nations, where the root causes can actually be addressed. He added that the IMO Secretariat stands ready to support Member States in developing practical, technical-level solutions for the industry.

What This Means for Owners, Managers, and Charterers

For ship operators, this is less a policy statement than a reminder that the operational risk map has shifted and stayed shifted. When attacks are occurring across three separate flashpoints — Hormuz, the Black Sea/Sea of Azov, and the Red Sea — simultaneously, and involve multiple actors rather than one predictable adversary, standard risk assessments and voyage planning need constant revisiting rather than one-off updates. Insurers, charterers, and flag states will likely keep tightening reporting and transit requirements in these zones, and crews routed through them deserve clear briefings on current threat levels before departure.

This also has a quieter implication for vessel condition and readiness. Ships operating in or near conflict zones face elevated wear, potential damage from near-miss incidents, and pressure to keep moving on tight schedules with less opportunity for thorough maintenance stops. That makes independent condition surveys, bunker verification, and cargo inspections more valuable, not less, in these trading patterns — giving owners and charterers a documented, third-party baseline on a vessel’s condition before and after transiting high-risk waters. As IMO itself notes, the consequences of these disruptions ripple well beyond the ships directly involved, touching freight markets, insurance costs, and crewing decisions across the industry.

Until the underlying conflicts are resolved at a political level — something IMO has been clear is beyond its own authority — the practical burden of managing risk will continue to fall on operators, managers, and the surveyors who help verify a vessel’s condition and cargo integrity at every stage of the voyage.

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