Stricken suezmax off Yemen now an ‘imminent’ environmental hazard

Naval operations working for the European Union have given an update this morning (pictured above) from the Red Sea on the state of the blaze onboard the laden Sounion, a suezmax attacked multiple times last Wednesday by the Houthis, which risks becoming the worst tanker spill of the 21st century. 

The ship, owned by Greece’s Delta Tankers, has been on fire since August 23 with the Houthis releasing a dramatic video (pictured below) of the moment they set it ablaze. All the crew were evacuated and hav since been transferred to Djibouti.

The ship remains anchored at the same point in international waters with the EU naval force warning the stricken ship is both a navigational and an “imminent” environmental hazard.

“This situation underlines that these kinds of attacks pose not only a threat against the freedom of navigation but also to the lives of seafarers, the environment, and subsequently the life of all citizens living in that region,” the EU’s naval force stated in a social media post this morning. 

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has called for the Security Council to condemn the attacks and for the Houthis to cease the attacks. The militant group has repeatedly stated it will not back down in its 10-month campaign against merchant shipping until Israel stops its war with Hamas.

“The Houthis’ brazen actions threaten to create an ecological disaster with devastating consequences for the region,” Thomas-Greenfield warned. 

The Sounion is carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil from Iraq. The badly damaged ship risks spilling four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez, arguably tanker shipping’s most famous casualty, potentially becoming the fifth worst oil spill of all time, according to statistics carried by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF).