SOME of the largest names profitably stuck to the Cape of Good Hope route shunning the Red Sea during the six-month lull in Houthi attacks from Yemen reported the UK's Maritime News.
Recent times have seen a dramatic and extremely violent return to attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
On July 6 the bulker Magic Seas was targeted by high-speed skiffs, unmanned surface vessels and missiles. The crew were forced to abandon ship, and the vessel then boarded by the Houthi insurgents.
A day later the Liberian-flagged bulker Eternity C was hit by sea drones, skiffs and RPGs in an attack that was described as 'simultaneous, intense, and targeted'. Three were killed, and another injured.
The sudden and well-coordinated resumption in attacks by the Houthi over six months since the last confirmed incident on December 26 last year vindicates the caution shown by many of the biggest names in shipping to continue with Cape of Good Hope diversions despite the apparent improvement of security conditions in the Red Sea in the first half of the year.
When Houthi insurgents announced in January, following a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, they were to stop targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, with the exception of Israeli owned vessels, and released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a resumption of Red Sea transits s by mid-2025 seemed likely.
The Gaza ceasefire did not hold and the security situation in the Red Sea if temporarily improved remained uncertain. In May the US announced a truce with the Houthi brokered by Oman which seemed to promise a return to normality.
SeaNews Turkey
Recent times have seen a dramatic and extremely violent return to attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
On July 6 the bulker Magic Seas was targeted by high-speed skiffs, unmanned surface vessels and missiles. The crew were forced to abandon ship, and the vessel then boarded by the Houthi insurgents.
A day later the Liberian-flagged bulker Eternity C was hit by sea drones, skiffs and RPGs in an attack that was described as 'simultaneous, intense, and targeted'. Three were killed, and another injured.
The sudden and well-coordinated resumption in attacks by the Houthi over six months since the last confirmed incident on December 26 last year vindicates the caution shown by many of the biggest names in shipping to continue with Cape of Good Hope diversions despite the apparent improvement of security conditions in the Red Sea in the first half of the year.
When Houthi insurgents announced in January, following a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, they were to stop targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, with the exception of Israeli owned vessels, and released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a resumption of Red Sea transits s by mid-2025 seemed likely.
The Gaza ceasefire did not hold and the security situation in the Red Sea if temporarily improved remained uncertain. In May the US announced a truce with the Houthi brokered by Oman which seemed to promise a return to normality.
SeaNews Turkey
