Oil Spill in Yemen

A cargo ship, the Rubymar, was hit by a Houthi missile in the Bab al Mandeb Strait, off the coast of Yemen on 18 February. The attack caused a small oil spill through a hole in the side of the vessel. Efforts were made to fix the hole before the Rubymar was towed to the nearest port.

The barely afloat cargo vessel carrying 22,000 tonnes of fertiliser drifted approximately 70 kilometres north in the Red Sea since it was initially attacked. A navigational warning was issued to other ships in the vicinity as the Rubymar drifted unmanned and unlit.

24 crew members from Syria, Egypt, India and the Philippines were forced to abandon the ship on the day that the attack occurred and were later rescued by the Djibouti Port Authority.