[2]: 112 The aim was to launch a counter-attack against the Ottoman corsair Sefer Reis however the Portuguese were defeated and the commander Luiz Figueira was killed.

[6] Sefer Reis turned back and headed in the direction from which he had come, moving fast and avoiding an open sea confrontation with the more heavily armed Portuguese forces.

[3] Figueira and the Portuguese forces, composed of four sailing ships and one oared fusta arrived at Bab al-Mandab in January 1551.

[3] The Portuguese squadron soon caught sight of the four galliots of Sefer Reis and Figueira recklessly engaged all four enemy vessels with his own oared fusta, however he quickly found himself surrounded.

[3][6] His escort of sailing ships made an attempt to move in to help him but realised that it was too late, as a result they were unable to do anything but fire an ineffective barrage of artillery from a distance.

Sefer was tasked to follow up with Seydi Ali and escort him safely back into the red sea, however, it was too late as the Ottoman fleet was ferociously routed in the Battle of the Gulf of Oman in August 1554.

In addition, Sefer Reis conducted a raid off the coast of India in 1556 during which he seized two Portuguese merchant vessels near the port of Chaul.

[3] Joao de Lisboa wrote a letter from captivity in Cairo in 1555 to the Portuguese viceroy, recommending a direct strike against his base in Mocha reporting that it had no walls or fortress, it was defended by only 400 Arab tribesmen and that Sefer Reis had no more than 400 men in his fleet.

[3]: 66–67 Sylveira lingered off the coast for several more weeks in hopes of capturing some merchant ships, but this also failed to produce any results so he returned to Muscat.

[3] The Portuguese commander Christovao Pereira Homem had set sail to the port of Massawa, where they were greeted by the Turks who caused a delay which allowed Sefer Reis to make preparations for an ambush against them.

[11] In November 1565, Sefer set sail with a fleet of ten galleys, by far the largest he had ever commanded, in what was intended to be the greatest and most daring campaign the corsair had ever undertaken.