The Houthis threaten to continue sinking ships in the Red Sea

The Yemen’s Houthi rebels They threatened this Sunday to “continue to sink more British ships”, after the UK-owned ship Rubymar completely sank yesterday after being attacked by rebels in mid-February.

“Yemen will continue to sink more British ships and any further consequences or damage will further incriminate Britain as a rogue state attacking Yemen and cooperating with the United States in perpetuating the current atrocity against civilians in Gaza.” he said in his X account Houthi Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein al Ezzi.

According to United States Central Command, the Belizean-flagged Rubymar was carrying about 21,000 metric tons of the chemical fertilizer ammonium sulfate, which is highly toxic and poses an “environmental risk in the Red Sea.”

In addition, the sinking of the ship itself also poses a threat to commercial navigation due to the risk of collision with other vessels passing through the busy waters of the strategic sea route, which is used for about 15% of the world’s maritime trade.

Yesterday he Government at the international level recognized Yemen, which faces the Houthis, indicated that the sinking represented an “unprecedented environmental disaster”.

The ship sank completely due to weather conditions at sea and strong winds, according to the Yemeni government, which blamed the disaster on the lack of response from the international community to help the government return the ship and empty its cargo.

Houthi rebels have attacked about fifty ships since last November, causing damage of varying severity, but the “Rubymar” is the first ship to sink as a result of a rebel operation.

According to the Yemeni authorities, the ship’s management was of Syrian nationality, and the crew consisted of 24 people, eleven Syrians, six Egyptians, three Indians and four Filipinos, who were evacuated to Djibouti.

Yemen’s Red Sea waters were on the brink of another environmental disaster following the breakdown of the FSO Safer shipstranded off the coast of Yemen since 1988 and whose operations to transfer more than 1.14 million barrels of oil it contained were successfully completed in mid-August 2023.