Red Sea oil tanker attack threatens ‘severe ecological disaster’

Parts of the Red Sea face the risk of a “severe ecological disaster”, an international naval force has warned after Yemen’s Houthis apparently deliberately blew up an oil tanker laden with 150,000 tonnes of crude oil.

The EU’s Aspides task force gave the warning on Saturday after the Houthis on Friday posted a video of what they said was an explosion on the 274-metre long ship set off by its fighters. The task force is made up of members from the bloc working to combat the threat from Iran-backed Houthis to international shipping.

The Sounion’s crew were rescued from the vessel on Thursday by a French naval vessel operating as part of Aspides. The ship had been left drifting after a series of attacks by the Houthis the previous day, 77 nautical miles west of the port of Hodeidah. The blowing up of the ship marks a new tactic for the Houthis. Since the group began its campaign against international shipping last November, it has sunk two ships — the Rubymar, attacked in February, and the Tutor, struck in June. However, it has not previously deliberately blown up an abandoned ship.

The Aspides statement, posted on X, said there was no fire visible on the ship when its forces rescued the crew. The naval force did not acknowledge the Houthis’ claim to have blown up the ship. But it said: “On August 23, the vessel was on fire as the result of an attack by an unknown source, posing a significant environmental threat due to the large volume of crude oil on board, which could lead to a severe ecological disaster with potentially devastating effects on the region’s biodiversity.” The statement gave no assessment of how much ecological damage had already been caused.

But it concluded: “This situation underlines that these kinds of attacks pose not only a threat against the freedom of navigation but also to the lives of seafarers, the environment, and subsequently the life of all citizens living in that region.” US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Saturday: “The Houthis have made clear they are willing to destroy the fishing industry and regional ecosystems that Yemenis and other communities in the region rely on for their livelihoods.” “The Houthis’ continued attacks threaten to spill a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, an amount four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster,” Miller said. (Financial Times)

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