Fears of environmental disaster rise as ship sinks after Houthi attack

Source: WaPo

By Jennifer Hassan
Updated March 3, 2024 at 12:11 p.m. EST|Published March 3, 2024 at 9:18 a.m. EST

A cargo ship sank in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi militants, taking some 21,000 metric tons of fertilizer down with it, posing a significant environmental risk to one of the world’s busiest waterways and the home of many coral reefs.

The Rubymar was struck by an anti-ballistic missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis on Feb. 18 and sank early Saturday after “slowly taking on water” since the attack, U.S. Central Command said on social media early Sunday local time.

“The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel was carrying presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea,” Centcom said, adding that the ship “also presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway.”

The ship’s sinking “will cause an environmental disaster,” the Yemeni government said in a separate statement.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/03/rubymar-houthi-attack-red-sea/

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Oh, FUCK!

Just another environmental disaster... move along.

The environmental danger of fertilizer contents was not reported earlier in LBN. Only that the Rubymar was the first ship to sink after rocket fire.