On 1 October Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a missile strike that targeted the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht in the Gulf of Aden two days earlier.
The attack marks a significant escalation, as it is one of the most serious Houthi assaults on commercial shipping outside the Red Sea since November 2023.
According to the EU maritime mission Aspides and the vessel’s operator, two sailors were injured in the strike which was launched on 29 September, prompting a helicopter evacuation of all 19 crew members.
Minervagracht sustained substantial damage and caught fire following the attack. A European naval force operating in the region, known as Operation Aspides, said that the Minervagracht was ‘on fire and adrift’ after the crew’s rescue.
According to the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority, the vessel then sank in the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis stated that the ship was targeted because its owner violated what they referred to as “the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine.”
It was the most serious attack in the Gulf of Aden, some distance from the Red Sea, where the Iranian-backed Houthis sank two vessels in July.
Minervagracht had been targeted on 23 September in an unsuccessful attack in the Gulf of Aden, which connects to the Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait separating East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
It identified the ship’s crew as coming from the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, with one wounded and stable and another severely wounded and airlifted to Djibouti for medical care.
Photo by Mark Prummel / markprummel.nl
