A cargo ship abandoned in the Gulf of Aden after a Houthi attack has left behind a large oil slick, leading to an environmental disaster that US Central Command said Friday could worsen.
The British-registered cargo ship Rubymar, sailing under the flag of Belize and operated by Lebanon, was carrying flammable fertilizer. It was damaged on Sunday in a rocket attack for which the Yemeni rebels claimed responsibility, writes Jutarnji.
The crew was evacuated to Djibouti after one missile hit the ship’s side, causing water to enter the engine room and the stern to cave in, the ship’s operator Blue Fleet Group said.
The second missile hit the ship’s deck, but did not cause any major damage, Blue Fleet Group CEO Roy Khoury told AFP.
CENTCOM said the ship is anchored, but water is slowly entering it. He left behind an oil slick about 30 kilometers long.
“The M/V Rubymar was carrying more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer at the time of the attack, which could have been washed into the Red Sea and worsened this environmental disaster,” reads a post on Twitter.
The ship’s operator said Thursday that the ship could be towed to Djibouti this week.
Khoury said the ship was still afloat and shared a picture taken on Wednesday showing its stern low in the water.
When asked if the ship will sink, Khoury said that “for now there is no risk, but there is always that possibility”.
The attack on the Rubymar ship caused the most damage to a commercial ship since the Houthis began attacking ships in November. The group also fired ballistic missiles and drones at the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
Attacks by Yemeni rebels have prompted some shipping companies to bypass southern Africa to avoid passage through the Red Sea, through which about 12 percent of global maritime trade normally passes.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development was warned last month that the volume of commercial traffic passing through the Suez Canal had fallen by more than 40 percent in the past two months.
Photo ©️ US Central Command (CENTCOM) / AFP
