Two seafarers on a bulk carrier have been killed in a drone and speedboat attack in the Red Sea blamed on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the second incident in a day after months of calm.
The Red Sea, which passes Yemen’s coast, is a critical waterway for 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 in Gaza.
The deaths on the Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C are the first involving shipping in the Red Sea since June last year and bring the number of killed in attacks on vessels there to six. The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the incident but Yemen’s exiled government and the European Union said it was the group’s work.
Hours before the attack, the Houthis claimed they had sunk another Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier, the MV Magic Seas, off south-west Yemen on Sunday.
The crew were rescued by a passing merchant vessel and arrived safely in Djibouti on Monday, port authorities said.
“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 London session of the United Nations shipping agency, 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.
The Houthis reached a ceasefire with the US in May but say they will keep attacking ships connected with Israel.
Arsenio Dominguez, the IMO’s secretary general, said on Tuesday. “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. Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause.”
The Eternity C and Magic Seas were part of commercial fleets whose sister vessels have made calls to Israeli ports over the past year.
Ellie Shafik of Vanguard Tech, a UK-based maritime risk management company, said: “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.”
At least two other crew members were injured on Eternity C and the vessel was listing, according to its operator, Cosmoship Management.
Eternity C and its crew – 21 Filipinos and one Russian – were attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speedboats, maritime security sources said.
Filipino seafarers, who form one of the world’s largest pools of merchant mariners, should exercise their right to refuse to sail in “high-risk, war-like” areas, their country’s department of migrant workers said on Tuesday.
Red Sea shipping has declined by about 50% from normal levels since the first Houthi attacks in 2023, according to Jakob Larsen of the shipping association, Bimco.
The security expert said: “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.”
Monday’s attack on Eternity C, 50 nautical miles south-west of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, was the second on merchant vessels in the region since November 2024, according to an official at the EU’s Operation Aspides, which helps protect Red Sea shipping.
The German foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador in Berlin on Tuesday after a Chinese warship used a laser to target a German aircraft taking part in Aspides.