UK-owned ship attacked by Houthis sinks off Yemen coast
Two weeks after being targeted by Houthis in the Gulf of Aden, a cargo ship registered in Britain has sunk, according to Yemen’s government.
The vessel, named Rubymar, had been adrift and taking on water for several days before its sinking. This incident marks the first time that Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have successfully sunk a ship in the Red Sea.
Reportedly transporting fertilizers, the sinking of the Rubymar poses a significant risk of triggering an environmental catastrophe, as experts have warned.
The attack on the Rubymar occurred in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, where it was struck by two missiles fired by Houthi rebels based in Yemen. Ten days before the sinking, the British government confirmed that all 24 crew members had been rescued after the vessel started taking on water.
An image obtained by the BBC on February 21 showed the ship partially submerged at the stern but still afloat. Despite efforts to tow the vessel to nearby Djibouti, its owners, a Lebanese firm operating under the Belize flag, expressed uncertainty about its fate due to the absence of crew members aboard.
The Rubymar, measuring 172 meters in length, was owned by Golden Adventure Shipping, with an address in Southampton, England. Its cargo reportedly consisted of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
Yemen’s Prime Minister, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, described the sinking of the ship as an unprecedented environmental disaster.
Greenpeace said a spill of ammonium nitrate could have “significant impacts on marine ecosystems”, which in the southern Red Sea feature coral reefs, coastal mangroves, and diverse marine life.
The Marine Science Department at the University of Jordan said that the release of large amounts of fertilizer into the sea could stimulate excessive growth of algae, using up so much oxygen that regular marine life would not survive.
The head of the department, Ali Al-Sawalmih, said that an urgent plan was needed “to establish a clean-up strategy”.
In a post on X, a Houthi leader, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the UK government “had a chance to recover the Rubymar by allowing aid trucks into Gaza.”
Since November, the Houthi rebels have been carrying out attacks on ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying their actions are in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The US and the UK have carried out a series of attacks on Houthi targets inside Yemen in response.
On Saturday, the UK Maritime Trade body, UKMTO, said it had received a report of a ship being attacked west of Yemen’s port of Mokha.
The UKMTO said: “The crew took the vessel to anchor and were evacuated by military authorities”.
Separately, the UKMTO reported a ship sinking, close to where the Rubymar was last seen.
The US Central Command said it carried out “a self-defense strike” against a Houthi surface-to-air missile that was about to be launched from Yemen.
The command said the missile had presented an imminent threat to US aircraft.
On the same day, Italy’s defense ministry said that one of its naval ships had also shot down a drone flying towards it in the Red Sea.
The rebels’ attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea have prompted many shipping companies to stop using the waterway, through which about 12% of global seaborne trade passes.
Despite more than a month of air strikes against Houthi targets by the US-led naval coalition, the rebels are still carrying out significant attacks.
They say they will continue to target vessels in the Red Sea area until Israel stops its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
