Saudi-led coalition impounds another Yemen-bound fuel ship in act of piracy
The Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC) says the Saudi-led coalition has seized yet another Yemen-bound fuel tanker and prevented it from docking at Hudaydah port, in a new act of piracy against the besieged Yemeni people.
Essam al-Mutawakel, a spokesman for the YPC, said in a tweet on Monday that the Saudi-led coalition impounded the ship named Red Ruby, which was carrying thousands of tons of petrol.
The senior Yemeni energy official noted that the ship was detained and prevented from reaching the port of Hudaydah despite having undergone inspection in Djibouti and obtaining necessary permits from the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNIVM).
The development comes days after the Riyadh-led alliance, which has been waging a devastating military campaign against Yemen since 2015, seized two vessels named Fos Energy and Princess Halimah, which were carrying thousands of tons of diesel fuel, and banned them from anchoring at Hudaydah port despite securing UN clearance in Djibouti.
Last week, the YPC said in a statement that the continued detention of Yemen-bound fuel ships has led to substantial fines over lengthy delays in offloading the shipments, and the figure stands at approximately 11 million dollars.
It added that only 33 fuel ships out of 54 tankers reached the strategic Hudaydah port in western Yemen during the six-month UN-brokered truce, which was first accepted in April and saw a lull in fighting between warring sides in the country.
The Yemen Petroleum Company also held the Saudi-led coalition of aggression and the United Nations fully responsible for the adverse humanitarian and economic repercussions of the ongoing blockade.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
