Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s largest international shipping companies, is continuing to avoid sending its vessels through the Red Sea even as the international community has stepped up efforts to guard commercial ships against recent attacks.
This month, Hapag-Lloyd and rival Maersk both paused traffic through the Red Sea after their vessels had come under drone and missile attacks that originated from areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebel movement. The two major firms subsequently began rerouting shipments around the Cape of Good Hope, sending them the long way around Africa to avoid additional attacks.
“We deem the situation still dangerous and will re-route via the cape while re-assessing the situation day by day,” a spokesperson for the company told NTD News, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, in an emailed statement. “We are talking about terrorism and we want to be safe for our crews, our vessels, and the cargo of our customers.”
Houthi Threat Persists
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are a Zaydi Shiite movement that has intermittently fought with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2004.The conflict expanded after the Houthis took over the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in September 2014, sparking a civil war that has led Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to intervene on behalf of the Yemeni government. They’re also widely believed to be backed by Iran, with the Trump administration designating the Houthis as a terrorist group in its closing days before the Biden administration reversed the designation shortly thereafter.
While the Yemeni civil war has subsided in recent months amid efforts at a ceasefire in Yemen, the Houthi movement has shifted its focus toward the current fighting in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli military and the Hamas terrorist group. The Houthi rebel forces have launched multiple drone and missile attacks toward Israel and have begun to attack Israel-linked merchant vessels in the Red Sea, in solidarity with Hamas.
In addition to targeting the MSC United, the Houthis claimed to have launched drone and missile attacks targeting the Israeli Red Sea port city of Eilat on Dec. 26.
The U.S.-led effort to protect international shipping under Operation Prosperity Guardian is still taking shape. Some countries have elected to continue preexisting maritime security efforts in the region rather than placing their personnel and naval assets under the authority of a U.S.-led operation. As of last week, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark had offered to send a handful of personnel to assist Operation Prosperity Guardian but hadn’t pledged any warships to the effort.
The continued Houthi threat poses a potentially significant disruption to global shipping. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of global trade flows through the Red Sea.
