By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-07-25

ADEN -- A United Nations (UN) campaign to raise money to clean up pollution emanating from the Rubymar freighter, which sank in the Red Sea after it was struck by Houthi missiles in March, needs urgent support, experts said.

There must not be a repeat of the FSO Safer situation, they said, in which the Iranian regime-backed Houthis stalled and actively obstructed efforts to prevent an oil spill in the Red Sea of potentially catastrophic proportions from the corroding oil tanker.

The Rubymar, a Belizean-flagged, British-registered and Lebanese-operated ship that was destined for Belarus with a cargo of fertilizer, was in transit near Bab al-Mandeb strait on February 18 when the Houthis struck it with two missiles.

It sank March 2 along with the cargo it was carrying: 22,000 tons of ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfate fertilizer, 200 tons of heavy fuel oil and 80 tons of marine diesel.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) -- a UN agency -- has called for an international governmental and non-governmental response to contribute to providing the equipment to clean up the environmental pollution.

The IMO said it spotted a 29km oil slick in the vicinity of the vessel, which is currently resting at the bottom of the Red Sea at a depth of about 100 meters.

It said the sunken ship represents a major environmental threat to Yemen and the surrounding region, especially the nearby Hanish archipelago, an area with rich biological diversity.

Invisible pollution

The campaign to clean up the pollution from the Rubymar is "crucial because of the leakage of fertilizers into seawater, which unlike an oil spill, is not visible," economist Abdul Aziz Thabet told Al-Fassel.

"This threatens the marine environment and fish, and threatens human life through fish consumption," he said.

"It is already too late to act now, but it is better than not acting at all and standing as spectators as a disaster befalls all the littoral countries of the Red Sea due to the movement of the winds," he added.

Many of the cargo ships the Houthis have targeted in the Red Sea are older vessels carrying dangerous materials, former head of the Public Authority for Environmental Protection Abdul Qader al-Kharraz told Al-Fassel.

An oil slick stretching nearly the length of Yemen's Red Sea coast was spotted July 17 after a Houthi attack damaged the Chios Lion crude tanker, the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory said.

Any spillage will have a devastating impact on the marine environment and marine organisms, al-Kharraz said.

The Iranian regime has been accused of enabling the Houthis' attacks on ships by supplying them with missiles and drones.