By Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou
LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) -Three seafarers on the Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C were killed in a drone and speedboat attack off Yemen, an official with the EU naval mission Aspides said on Tuesday, the second incident in a day after months of calm.
The Red Sea, which passes Yemen’s coast, has long been a critical waterway for the world’s oil and commodities but traffic has dropped since the Iran-aligned Houthi militia began targeting ships in November 2023 in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians against Israel in the Gaza war.
The deaths on the Eternity C, the first involving shipping in the Red Sea since June 2024, bring the total number of seafarers killed in attacks on vessels plying the Red Sea to seven. The vessel’s operator, Cosmoship Management, was not immediately available to comment on the reported fatalities.
An official with Aspides, the European Union’s mission assigned to help protect Red Sea shipping, also said that at least two other crew members were injured. Liberia’s shipping delegation had told a United Nations meeting earlier that two crew members had been killed.
Eternity C, with 22 crew members – 21 Filipinos and one Russian – on board, was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speed boats, maritime security sources told Reuters.
The ship was now adrift and listing, the sources said.
Hours before the latest attack, the Houthis had claimed responsibility for a strike on another Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier, the MV Magic Seas, off southwest Yemen on Sunday, saying the vessel sank. The vessel’s manager said the information about the sinking could not be verified.
All crew on the Magic Seas were rescued by a passing merchant vessel and arrived safely in Djibouti on Monday, Djibouti authorities said.
The Houthis have not commented on the Eternity C.
“Just as Liberia was processing the shock and grief of the attack against Magic Seas, we received a report that Eternity C again has been attacked, attacked horribly and causing the death of two seafarers,” Liberia’s delegation told a session of the International Maritime Organization.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have disrupted commerce by launching hundreds of drones and missiles at vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel.
While the Houthis reached a ceasefire with the United States in May, the militia has reiterated that they will keep attacking ships it says are connected with Israel.
“After several months of calm, the resumption of deplorable attacks in the Red Sea constitutes a renewed violation of international law and freedom of navigation,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said on Tuesday.
“Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause.”
‘ELEVATED RISKS’
Both the Eternity C and Magic Seas were part of commercial fleets whose sister vessels have made calls to Israeli ports over the past year.
“The pause in Houthi activity did not necessarily indicate a change in underlying intent. As long as the conflict in Gaza persists, vessels with affiliations, both perceived and actual, will continue to face elevated risks,” said Ellie Shafik, head of intelligence with the Britain-based maritime risk management company Vanguard Tech.
Filipino seafarers – who form one of the world’s largest pools of merchant mariners – have been urged to exercise their right to refuse to sail in “high-risk, war-like” areas, including the Red Sea after the latest strikes, the Philippines’ Department of Migrant Workers said on Tuesday.
Shipping traffic through the region has declined by around 50% from normal levels since the first Houthi attacks in 2023, according to Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer with shipping association BIMCO.
“This reduction in traffic has persisted due to the ongoing unpredictability of the security situation. As such, BIMCO does not anticipate the recent attacks will significantly alter current shipping patterns,” Larsen said.
Monday’s attack on Eternity C, 50 nautical miles southwest of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, was the second on merchant vessels in the region since November 2024, according to an official at Aspides.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou, additional reporting by Yannis Souliotis in Athens and Karen Lema in Manila; editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Heinrich)
