The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) annual conference opened today with the threat of geopolitical and war risks looming over the event, the delegates and the global maritime sector.

With the Strait of Hormuz still blocked and attacks on vessels intensifying marine insurers will head for Rotterdam in the hope of finding answers to the questions they are being asked by their clients around the cost and breadth of cover alongside any expectations as to when hostilities will cease.

The secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, (pic) has called on Member States to refrain from actions that endanger merchant ships and put seafarers’ lives at risk.

Addressing the IMO’s Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers, he warned of the severe impacts of geopolitical tensions on the shipping industry.

Dominguez said: “We are reaching a point where these conflicts are being used as a pretext to attack merchant vessels and innocent seafarers. Do not use these conflicts to attack innocent seafarers.”

Since the current conflict in the Middle East began on 28 February, IMO has verified 80 attacks on international shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in the deaths of at least 22 seafarers and injuries to many others.

In the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, dozens of fatalities have reportedly resulted from attacks on international shipping in recent months, although precise numbers are difficult to verify.

Attacks in the Red Sea have also resumed, with four fatalities confirmed in the latest attack by the Houthis on a merchant vessel on 11 August.

Dominguez emphasised that the attacks across these conflicts are not attributable to one single actor: “In the Strait of Hormuz, it is not only one country attacking merchant vessels. In the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, it is not only one country attacking merchant vessels.”

He underlined that addressing the root causes of these geopolitical conflicts is beyond IMO’s remit, but that their impact is increasingly evident across global maritime trade and shipping operations. He urged delegates to raise these impacts on international shipping with their governments and in the appropriate international fora. When shipping operations are disrupted, the consequences extend far beyond the maritime sector, affecting economies, supply chains and everyday lives.

“I call on you to share these impacts with the relevant bodies in your countries so that this can be dealt with within the United Nations, as appropriate.… It falls to you and your capitals, and relevant bodies of the United Nations, to address the root causes and find solutions,” Dominguez added.

Attacks by Iranian backed Houthi rebels and the Iranian armed forces have targeted vessels leading to more loss of life and a view that the attacks on merchant shipping constitute war crimes.

It comes after two crew members died after a fire broke out on an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, with Iran saying the vessel struck a mine while the USA said the damage had been inflicted by an Iranian drone attack.

The Houthis’ latest attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden most likely amount to war crimes in at least three cases, Human Rights Watch has warned.

The attacks followed the Houthis’ announcement on 20 July 2026, that they would impose a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia, in response to what they claimed is a Saudi sea and air blockade on Yemen, where the Houthis control the northwestern part of the country.

The new attacks targeted at least two Saudi-flagged vessels, a Tanzania-flagged vessel, and a Dominica-flagged vessel. Attacks on civilians or civilian objects committed recklessly or with deliberate intent constitute war crimes.

“The Houthis are once again putting seafarers’ lives at deadly risk through their attacks on commercial ships, this time as part of their hostilities with the Saudi-led coalition,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the geopolitics, attacks on civilian crews carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes.”

Human Rights Watch reviewed data from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations and vessel tracking websites to corroborate the type of vessel attacked and the reported locations and timing.

Evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch, including Houthi statements and publicly available information about the ships, indicates that the Houthis knew or should have known that the Encelia, Daisy, and Amzan were commercial vessels carrying civilians. Human Rights Watch could not confirm their cargos. But the Houthis have not produced any evidence to show that there were military targets on these ships.

The organisation said international humanitarian law protects civilians and civilian objects from attack at all times. Parties to a conflict must do everything feasible to confirm that a target is a military objective before and during attacking it and must take precautions to minimize civilian harm. A person who commits serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent—that is, intentionally or recklessly – may be prosecuted for war crimes. Individuals may also be held criminally liable for assisting in, facilitating, aiding, or abetting a war crime. Commanders and fighters who knowingly or recklessly attack civilians or civilian objects, or who help others carry out such attacks, may be criminally liable for war crimes.

“Civilian crew members should not have to put their lives at risk to carry out their jobs,” Jafarnia said. “The Houthis should immediately and unconditionally end all unlawful attacks on civilian ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”

Dr Simone Krummaker, associate professor of Insurance at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) in London, said the issue remained the scale and breadth of the key global waterways which remain effectively blocked to maritime traffic.

“The key issue is not only whether Hormuz or Bab al-Mandab are physically open. Markets price in expected disruption before an actual closure, while insurers price the expected cost of claims as risk increases,” she explained. “This affects war-risk insurance, freight rates, vessel availability, routing decisions and energy prices.

“The more significant development is the growing correlation and interconnectedness between routes and their alternatives. If disruption in Hormuz pushes more traffic towards the Red Sea, but Bab al-Mandab is also exposed to conflict and Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline is targeted, the diversification benefits disappear.

“For insurers and shipping companies, that changes the problem from pricing one dangerous route to managing a network of interconnected exposures. The key risk-management question is therefore whether those alternatives are genuinely independent of the original risk.”