News Blogmaritime piracy

Tragic misunderstanding in the Red Sea according to the Yemenis

(BRUSSELS2) Two fishermen killed, another in a critical situation, and one missing after a missile was fired. This is the assessment announced by the Yemeni authorities on Wednesday, May 27.

The fishermen - as well as a fourth of whom we have not heard from - were on board their boat in the Red Sea, coming from the Midy area and were close to Sudanese waters, when a missile destroyed their boat. This missile would have been fired by one of the ships of the international fleet which patrols the region, according to the Yemeni news agency Saba. But the circumstances and even the location of the incident remain unclear. Is it in Sudanese waters, really, or rather in Yemeni waters. In advance, the Midy district official denied that the boat had been attacked in Yemeni territorial waters. Sudanese and Yemenis should coordinate their investigation of the situation.

European skepticism

On the side of European specialists in the fight against piracy, we remain skeptical and we refuse to comment more broadly on this information. As for the International Maritime Bureau, it has identified - according to my research - a single recent incident in the Red Sea, Tuesday 25, when a cargo ship foiled a pirate attack by "appropriate maneuvers". But it was further south - off Eritrea.

Yemeni annoyance: NATO targeted

Be that as it may, this incident demonstrates the annoyance - and the word seems weak - of Yemen towards the international forces, at least some of them. The Yemeni Minister of the Interior thus recently stepped up to the plate - claiming that a Yemeni ship had been provoked by a NATO mission in its region, which exercised "intimidation" against its crew . To be continued

(NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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