Doha/New York: The situation is alarming following the sinking of a Maritime Vessel Rubymar in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen on Saturday, March 2, days after it was hit by an anti-ship ballistic missile on February 18, 2024. The ship had been slowly taking on water since the unprovoked attack.
The missile attack on the Belize-flagged, United Kingdom-owned bulk carrier Rubymar had resulted in an oil slick in the Red Sea. As the ship sank at 2:15 am local time on Saturday (23:15 GMT on Friday) and was reported by the United States military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), it poses potential environmental, economic and humanitarian consequences for Yemen and the broader region.
The United Nations Secretary-General’s special envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that five experts were to travel to Yemen within the next 48 hours from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). They will, in close coordination with the Ministry of Environment of Yemen, initiate an assessment of the consequences that the sinking of the Rubymar may have on the Red Sea.
The ship was filled with approximately 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer. While this presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea, it also presents, according to CENTCOM, a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway.”
“I can tell you that the Secretary-General is deeply worried about reports of the sinking of the Maritime Vessel,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, told journalists in New York.
Raising the issue in the presence of Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha today, US Secretary of State Antony J.Blinken warned that the huge fuel slick from that ship was creating a “potential environmental disaster”.
Blinken added: “We’ve seen the Houthis attack ships that are bringing food, grains to the people of Yemen, the very people that the Houthis purport to in some fashion represent. And of course, it’s had a dramatic impact on shipping around the world. That’s going to have an impact for a lot of people in higher food prices and energy prices. But in Yemen itself, in the region itself, environmental disaster and a huge impact on the ability to get food to people who so desperately need it in Yemen.”.
He said that if the Houthis cared at all about their standing, their reputation, and how they’re seen by the world, “they will stop these attacks and stop the terrible damage that it’s doing to people in the region, people in Yemen, people around the world”.
– global bihari bureau
