Regional, Int’l Mobilization to Confront Fallout from Houthis’ Sinking of Rubymar

This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)
This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)
TT
20

Regional, Int’l Mobilization to Confront Fallout from Houthis’ Sinking of Rubymar

This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)
This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on March 2, 2024 and dated March 1, shows the Belize-flagged cargo ship Rubymar, damaged in a February 18 missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias, floating in the Red Sea. (Satellite image 2024 Maxar Technologies / AFP)

Officials from Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, Britain, China, the United States, European Union and United Nations held a meeting in the interim Yemeni capital Aden on Tuesday to discuss the fallout from the sinking of the Rubymar by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in the Red Sea last week.

The UK-owned and Belize-flagged Rubymar was abandoned after the Houthis fired a missile at the ship in the southern Red Sea on February 18, leading to a fuel leak and it taking on water.

The US military confirmed on Saturday that the vessel had sunk, the first total loss from the attacks in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait. Yemen's legitimate government pointed out the risk to marine life due to its cargo of hazardous fertilizer.

Tuesday’s meeting tackled means to respond to the consequences of the disaster and limit its impact.

Yemeni Minister of Water and Environment Tawfik al-Sharjabi, who was present at the meeting, called on the regional and international communities to assume their responsibilities to stop the terrorist Houthi threats and disasters.

He urged them to help Yemen in confronting the challenges caused by these problems, reported the state news agency Saba.

The UN had announced that it was prepared to provide technical assistance to the Yemeni government by sending experts to assess the situation. They are expected to arrive in days.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abdulqader Al-Kharraz, former chairman of Yemen’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA), speculated that the sinking may have been deliberate to "bury hazardous waste" off Yemen.

He explained that the sinking may have been part of a deal struck between the Houthis and international parties.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he noted that the vessel was registered in England, but its owners are Syrian and Lebanese and the company owner is based in Beirut.

He noted that the operating company’s failure to take action to rescue the ship, even though it was moored at sea for 12 days, raises suspicions that the sinking was deliberate so that its cargo could be buried at sea.

This confirms that an environmental crime has been committed by the Houthis in cooperation with an international mafia, Al-Kharraz said.

Insurance industry sources said the Rubymar, built in 1997, was an ageing vessel with a low value, which was not believed to have been covered through the major London marine insurance market.

The US military previously said the February 18 missile attack had significantly damaged the bulk vessel and caused an 18-mile (29-km) oil slick.

"The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel was carrying presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea," the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

Al-Kharraz said the Rubymar was carrying 41,000 tons of fertilizer and other unknown substances.

"It seems the ship was carrying hazardous waste that was not declared," he speculated.

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, the foreign minister in Yemen's legitimate government in Aden, said in a post on X: "The sinking of the Rubymar is an environmental catastrophe that Yemen and the region have never experienced before.

"It is a new tragedy for our country and our people. Every day we pay the price for the adventures of the Houthi militia ..."

The release of such large amounts of fertilizer into the Red Sea poses a serious threat to marine life, said Ali Al-Sawalmih, director of the Marine Science Station at the University of Jordan.

The overload of nutrients can stimulate excessive growth of algae, using up so much oxygen that regular marine life cannot survive, said Al-Sawalmih, describing a process called eutrophication.

"An urgent plan should be adopted by countries of the Red Sea to establish monitoring agenda of the polluted areas in the Red Sea as well as adopt a cleanup strategy," he said.

The overall impact depends on how ocean currents deplete the fertilizer and how it is released from the stricken vessel, said Xingchen Tony Wang, assistant professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College.

The ecosystem of the southern Red Sea features pristine coral reefs, coastal mangroves and diverse marine life.

Last year, the area avoided a potential environmental disaster when the United Nations removed more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker moored off the Yemen coast. That type of operation may be more difficult in the current circumstances.



Syrian Authorities Announce Closure of Notorious Desert Camp

 A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Syrian Authorities Announce Closure of Notorious Desert Camp

 A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)

A notorious desert refugee camp in Syria has closed after the last remaining families returned to their areas of origin, Syrian authorities said on Saturday.

The Rukban camp in Syria's desert was established in 2014, at the height of Syria's civil war, in a de-confliction zone controlled by the US-led coalition fighting the ISIS group, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.

Desperate people fleeing ISIS extremists and former government bombardment sought refuge there, hoping to cross into Jordan.

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government rarely allowed aid to enter the camp and neighboring countries closed their borders to the area, isolating Rukban for years.

After an opposition offensive toppled Assad in December, families started leaving the camp to return home.

The Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based organization, said on Friday that the camp was "officially closed and empty, all families and residents have returned to their homes".

Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said on X on Saturday that "with the dismantlement of the Rukban camp and the return of the displaced, a tragic and sorrowful chapter of displacement stories created by the bygone regime's war machine comes to a close".

"Rukban was not just a camp, it was the triangle of death that bore witness to the cruelty of siege and starvation, where the regime left people to face their painful fate in the barren desert," he added.

At its peak, the camp housed more than 100,000 people. Around 8,000 people still lived there before Assad's fall, residing in mud-brick houses, with food and basic supplies smuggled in at high prices.

Syrian minister for emergency situations and disasters Raed al-Saleh said on X said the camp's closure represents "the end of one of the harshest humanitarian tragedies faced by our displaced people".

"We hope this step marks the beginning of a path that ends the suffering of the remaining camps and returns their residents to their homes with dignity and safety," he added.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 1.87 million Syrians have returned to their places of origin since Assad's fall, after they were displaced within the country or abroad.

The IOM says the "lack of economic opportunities and essential services pose the greatest challenge" for those returning home.