Maersk, the Danish shipping giant announced on Wednesday (Jan 24) that two ships belonging to its US subsidiary had turned back after explosions nearby in the Red Sea.
The incident happened when the ships were transiting the Bab el-Mandeb strait amid the escalating Red Sea crisis which has majorly impacted the shipping route and global trade.
Bab al-Mandab is the outlet of the Red Sea. It is between between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.
In a statement, Maersk said that both crews and the cargo were unharmed. It added that the ships were being escorted by US Navy ships and “enroute, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the US Navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles.”
“The US Navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden,” it said, further stating that the vessels were being escorted back to the Gulf of Aden.
In a separate statement, US Central Command said that Yemen’s Houthi forces fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the US-flagged container ship Maersk Detroit as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden.
Maersk on January 5 said that it would divert its container vessels away from the Red Sea for the foreseeable future. But Maersk ships were an exception until Wednesday. The company said that that would no longer be the case.
“Following the escalation of risk, MLL is suspending transits in the region until further notice,” it said on Wednesday.
Israel-Hamas war
The tensions in the region continue to escalate with the worsening situation in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that tank shelling on a UN shelter on Wednesday killed nine people in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, with toll expected to rise.
“Two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people – reports now 9 dead and 75 injured,” Thomas White, UNRWA’s Gaza director, said on X.
Watch: Gravitas: America fighter jets bomb Iran-backed targets in Iraq, Yemen
Philippe Lazzarini, who is the head of UNRWA, condemned the attack emphasing that the compound had been clearly marked as a UN facility, and its coordinates had been shared with Israeli authorities.
“Once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,” Lazzarini said on X.
Teams from UNRWA and the World Health Organization were trying to reach the shelter, which had been blocked for two days, White said.
Earlier he said the UNRWA training centre had been hit, with “buildings ablaze and mass casualties”.
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
(With inputs from agencies)
