Rubymar cargo ship attacked by Yemen's Houthi rebels has sunk in the Red Sea. This is the first vessel to be fully destroyed by the Houthi attack that started since the Israel-Hamas war.
The Rubymar’s sinking underscores the impact of Houthi attacks on shipping through the crucial waterway connecting Asia and the Middle East to Europe, disrupting cargo and energy shipments.
With the intensified Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, many ships turned away from the key route.
After being struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on February 18, the Belize-flagged Rubymar had been drifting northward. The strike happened in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the waterway linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Yemeni government and regional military officials confirmed that the ship sank. The vessel had been abandoned for 12 days after the attack, though plans had been made to try and tow the ship to a safe port.
Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, the prime minister of Yemen's internationally recognised government, called the ship's sinking an unprecedented environmental disaster.
“It's a new disaster for our country and our people,” Ahmed wrote on X. “Every day, we pay for the Houthi militia's adventures, which were not stopped at plunging Yemen into the coup disaster and war,” he added.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel-Hamas war. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo bound for Iran, the Houthis' main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthi-controlled territory.
