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The UK P&I Club has told members that war-risk cover under its Charterers Liability, Fixed Premium, and Offshore terms will change again for the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, southern Red Sea, and adjacent waters. Circular 15\/26, dated August 26 and signed by Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer James Petrie, says the amendments take effect at 12:00 noon Greenwich Mean Time on September 25, 2026. From that hour, the Club says it shall not indemnify an assured for loss, damage, liability, cost, or expense caused by listed war risks inside a defined box that covers the southern Red Sea approaches, Bab el-Mandeb traffic, and wide stretches of the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n
The circular\u2019s boundary language is technical, but the commercial meaning is simpler. Ships that charter or buy fixed-premium and offshore cover through UK P&I will face a standing exclusion for war risks in those waters unless they arrange separate war-risk or kidnap-and-ransom protection. The Club reminds members that Red Sea and adjacent waters had already been hit by an earlier notice of cancellation effective August 16, and that Iran and Persian Gulf waters had been excluded since early March. Circular 15\/26 turns temporary cancellation language into an amendment of the standing terms, which matters for anyone renewing or relying on those wordings after September 25.<\/p>\n
That insurance calendar lands three days after a sharper field warning from NNPC Marine Insurance. On September 22, NNPC said the security situation in the southern Red Sea had deteriorated and that Houthi forces had further strengthened their position around Bab el-Mandeb. According to the update, Houthi forces had in a short period captured the port city of Mokha, Perim Island (Mayun) at the narrowest point of the strait, and the Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands. NNPC said UK Maritime Trade Operations and the Joint Maritime Information Center continue to warn of attack risk and of navigation-system disruption through GNSS spoofing and AIS manipulation. The Dutch insurer advised members to avoid the southern Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden where possible, and to give early notice when a voyage cannot be avoided so war-risk and K&R cover can be checked.<\/p>\n
For Ethiopia, the Red Sea file is not abstract maritime law. Most of the country\u2019s seaborne imports and exports still move through Djibouti\u2019s corridor to and from the Gulf of Aden and the southern Red Sea. When war-risk exclusions harden and underwriters tell owners to stay clear of Bab el-Mandeb, cargo managers face higher premiums, longer Cape of Good Hope diversions, slower schedules, and more expensive container and bulk rates. Those costs do not stay on ship invoices. They show up in fuel, wheat, medicine, fertilizer, and industrial inputs that Ethiopia\u2019s importers already struggle to price under a managed foreign-exchange system.<\/p>\n
Horn shipping desks have lived with Red Sea rerouting since Houthi attacks on commercial traffic intensified in late 2023 and 2024. What is new in this September sequence is the combination of a territorial claim of stronger Houthi control at Mokha, Perim\/Mayun, and the Hanish islands with a major P&I club writing the southern Red Sea war-risk exclusion into standing charterers and fixed-premium terms. UKMTO and JMIC warnings about spoofed satellite navigation and manipulated AIS add a second cost: even ships that sail with extra security still face higher collision, grounding, and search-and-rescue risk when position data cannot be trusted.<\/p>\n
Djibouti\u2019s ports remain the practical outlet for Ethiopian cargo that does not move by air. When southern Red Sea lanes tighten, Djibouti does not disappear from the map, but the voyage time and insurance quote attached to each box do change. Carriers that already divert around the Cape lengthen the path from Asian and European load ports. Carriers that still transit Bab el-Mandeb pay war-risk premiums that clubs and hull underwriters have been raising for more than two years. Either path raises the landed cost of goods entering Ethiopia and the net return on coffee, oilseeds, and other exports leaving through the same corridor.<\/p>\n
Circular 15\/26 also sits beside earlier UK P&I notices that members should not treat as forgotten history. The Club\u2019s February and August cancellation notices already carved Iran, the Persian Gulf, and Red Sea adjacent waters out of war-risk indemnity under the same families of terms. The September 25 effective date is therefore less a sudden invention than a formalization. Charterers and offshore operators who assumed temporary notices would quietly lapse now have a dated amendment. Brokers who place Ethiopian-related voyages will have to show clients whether alternative war-risk markets remain open for Bab el-Mandeb transit after that noon GMT cutover.<\/p>\n
NNPC\u2019s September 22 note does not claim to settle battlefield facts on Yemen\u2019s western coast. It summarizes recent reports of Houthi gains and restates UKMTO\/JMIC risk language for commercial members. Readers should treat the capture list for Mokha, Mayun, and the Hanish islands as attributed security reporting, not as a Mereja battlefield survey. Even on that cautious reading, the insurance market is reacting as if the southern Red Sea\u2019s war-risk profile has worsened again in the same week Ethiopia\u2019s northern politics also hardened. Shippers do not need a perfect map of island control to feel a premium increase or a schedule slip.<\/p>\n
The Horn consequence can be stated without drama. Ethiopia depends on seaborne trade through a corridor that funnels into Bab el-Mandeb. UK P&I is amending charterers, fixed-premium, and offshore terms so that listed war risks inside a southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden box are excluded from midday September 25. NNPC is telling members that Houthi positions around the strait look stronger and that spoofing and AIS manipulation remain active threats. Together those notices mean higher war-risk costs, more Cape diversions, and more expensive Djibouti-linked cargo for Ethiopian importers and exporters, unless separate cover is bought and available.<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n UK P&I Club Circular 15\/26<\/a> NNPC Marine Insurance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK P&I Club has told members that war-risk cover under its Charterers Liability, Fixed Premium, and Offshore terms will change again for the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, southern Red Sea, and adjacent waters. Circular 15\/26, dated August 26 and signed by Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer James Petrie, says the amendments take effect at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":754892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7911,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/redsea-feat-4.jpg?fit=1280%2C1493&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-3anH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754931,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754893\/revisions\/754931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}