Red Sea Nations Forge Joint Maritime Law Enforcement Pact Amid Regional Threats

Regional maritime authorities convened in Nairobi this week to coordinate a law enforcement response to escalating threats across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most critical shipping corridors.

Security officials from Ethiopia, Yemen, Djibouti and Somalia gathered for the two-day Maritime Law Enforcement Dialogue, facilitated by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with backing from the European Union, INTERPOL, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The forum centered on strengthening information-sharing mechanisms and operational cooperation among regional law enforcement bodies, reflecting mounting urgency over threats that no single national authority can address alone.

Abdurrahim Muhammad Ali of the Djibouti Maritime Authority pointed directly to how geopolitical tensions compound existing enforcement challenges. “If you are talking about threats, the current attacks on the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz have an impact on Gulf of Aden because [they are] affecting maritime security. Pirates use this opportunity and the distraction of the maritime forces globally to do more attacks in this area, because they know that everyone is busy [looking in another direction],” he said.

The accountability question running through the dialogue was straightforward: which institutions are responsible for which waters, and how do they share the intelligence needed to act?

For landlocked Ethiopia, the stakes are particularly concrete. Captain Kibru Mesfin of the Ethiopian Maritime Authority noted that most of the country’s trade passes through neighbouring Djibouti, making secure sea lanes essential to national economic stability. Disruptions raise shipping and insurance costs, delay critical goods and undermine export capacity. Mesfin called for more organized and harmonized systems for sharing maritime information among neighbouring countries, including Djibouti, Yemen and Somalia, and advocated for establishing a National Maritime Information Centre with stronger regional connections to ensure authorities have access to timely intelligence.

Mostafa Elbanna, UNODC’s Regional Coordinator for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden under its Global Maritime Crime Programme, framed the gathering as a necessary step in building that architecture. “This is a great time to have this kind of discussions and dialogue with different agencies and law enforcement to talk about their challenges, and also the way forward when it comes to maritime security,” he said.

Officials identified piracy, illegal fishing, trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling and narcotics trafficking as the primary enforcement concerns. A critical observation emerged during discussions: developments in one part of the region increasingly generate consequences elsewhere, which is precisely why siloed national responses have proven insufficient.

Meanwhile, Elbanna acknowledged measurable progress. Piracy levels remain substantially below their peak more than a decade ago, and countries have strengthened their capacity to respond through improved law enforcement capabilities, enhanced data collection and deeper regional cooperation. The dialogue focused on concrete measures to advance these efforts further, rather than relitigating ground already covered.

Muhammad Ali enumerated Djibouti’s primary maritime concerns as maritime terrorism, illegal fishing, robbery, trafficking, irregular migration and smuggling, then drew the accountability line plainly. “The practical outcome is to get closer and share information from Yemen, Somalia and Ethiopia. We have the same challenges,” he said.

Discussions across the two days centered on improving maritime domain awareness, strengthening operational cooperation and developing more coordinated responses to incidents at sea. The consistent thread was recognition that criminal networks and security threats move freely across borders, while law enforcement mandates remain bounded by national jurisdiction. Whether the institutional frameworks discussed in Nairobi translate into functioning information-sharing agreements, and on what timeline, is the question regional authorities will now have to answer.