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INTERNATIONAL – Weeks after the attack, the Rubymar has finally sunk… And that could lead to problems. On February 19, this merchant ship was damaged by missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen and on Saturday, March 2, it sank in the Gulf of Aden at around 2 a.m., according to the Yemeni government.
As you can see in our video above, This Belize-flagged cargo ship owned by a Lebanese company was carrying flammable fertilizers. “The approximately 21,000 tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer the ship was carrying poses an environmental risk in the Red Sea,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.
On X, formerly Twitter, CENTCOM also published a photo of the fully submerged Rubymar. Satellite images shared by Maxar Technologies and published by AFP show fuel oil leaking from the ship. According to the TankerTrackers website, the sinking would “cause an environmental disaster in (Yemeni) territorial waters and the Red Sea.”
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A danger to maritime traffic
The Rubymar had left the United Arab Emirates and was on its way to the Bulgarian port of Varna. The crew had abandoned the ship and were able to be brought to safety after being hit by two missiles. According to the British Navy-run maritime security agency UKMTO, the attacked ship was 35 nautical miles (65 kilometers) from the Yemeni port of Mokha (southwest).
“The sinking also poses a risk to other vessels using the waterway's busy shipping lanes,” the US military said. According to the International Monetary Fund, container shipping across the Red Sea has fallen by almost a third this year due to ongoing attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
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In fact, the Houthis have been carrying out attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is waging war against Hamas in retaliation for the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement on January 7. October on Israeli soil. In light of these attacks, the United States, Israel's main ally, set up a multinational force in December to “protect” maritime traffic in these strategic waters.
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