عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Traffic in Suez Canal Resumes after Stranded Ship Refloated

This satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies shows the MV Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal on the morning of March 28, 2021. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP)
This satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies shows the MV Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal on the morning of March 28, 2021. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP)
TT
20
TT

Traffic in Suez Canal Resumes after Stranded Ship Refloated

This satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies shows the MV Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal on the morning of March 28, 2021. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP)
This satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies shows the MV Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal on the morning of March 28, 2021. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/AFP)

Egypt’s Suez Canal will reopen for shipping traffic in both directions on Monday evening after a giant container ship which had been blocking the busy waterway for almost a week was refloated, with more than 400 ships waiting to pass through.

The Suez Canal Authority’s chairman Osama Rabie said the channel was navigable after the 400-meter (430-yard) long vessel Ever Given was freed undamaged earlier on Monday.

“The ship came out intact and it has no problems. We’ve just searched the bottom and soil of the Suez Canal and thankfully it is sound and has no issues, and ships will pass through it today,” he told Nile TV.

The authority informed shipping agencies that convoys of ships will resume running both ways through the canal from 7 pm (1700 GMT), two agents told Reuters.

The Ever Given had become jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early last Tuesday, halting traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

Live footage on a local television station showed the ship surrounded by tug boats moving slowly in the center of the canal on Monday afternoon. The station, ExtraNews, said the ship was moving at a speed of 1.5 knots.

After dredging and excavation work over the weekend, rescue workers from the SCA and a team from Dutch firm Smit Salvage had succeeded in partially refloating the ship earlier on Monday.

“The time pressure to complete this operation was evident and unprecedented,” said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Smit Salvage owner Boskalis, after the Ever Given was refloated.

The company said approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged to refloat the 224,000-ton container ship and a total of 11 tugs and two powerful sea tugs were used to pull the ship off.

Evergreen Line, which is leasing the Ever Given, confirmed the ship had been successfully refloated and said it would be repositioned in a lake that sits between two sections of the canal and inspected for seaworthiness.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the technical managers of the container ship, said there were no reports of pollution or cargo damage.

Queue
At least 400 vessels are waiting to transit the canal, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, Nile TV reported.

The authority said earlier it would be able to accelerate convoys through the canal once the Ever Given was freed. “We will not waste one second,” Rabie told Egyptian state TV.

He said it could take up to three days to clear the backlog, and a canal source said more than 100 ships would be able to enter the channel daily. Shipping group Maersk said the knock-on disruptions to global shipping could take weeks or months to unravel.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who had not publicly commented on the blockage, said Egypt had ended the crisis and assured resumption of trade through the canal.

Oil prices were more than 1 percent lower at $63.85 a barrel after the ship was refloated. Shares of Taiwan-listed Evergreen Marine Corp had closed 1.75% higher.

About 15% of world shipping traffic transits the Suez Canal, which is an important source of foreign currency revenue for Egypt. The stoppage was costing the canal $14-15 million a day.

Shipping rates for oil product tankers nearly doubled after the ship became stranded, and the blockage has disrupted global supply chains, threatening costly delays for companies already dealing with COVID-19 restrictions.

Maersk was among shippers rerouting cargoes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding up to two weeks to journeys and extra fuel costs.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

UN Expects Deteriorating Food Security in Yemen in Next Four Months

Over a quarter of IDPs in four government-controlled areas experienced moderate to severe hunger in April. Photo: UN
Over a quarter of IDPs in four government-controlled areas experienced moderate to severe hunger in April. Photo: UN
TT
20
TT

UN Expects Deteriorating Food Security in Yemen in Next Four Months

Over a quarter of IDPs in four government-controlled areas experienced moderate to severe hunger in April. Photo: UN
Over a quarter of IDPs in four government-controlled areas experienced moderate to severe hunger in April. Photo: UN

A UN report expected that the food security situation in Yemen will continue to worsen over the next four months, saying over a quarter of internally displaced people (IDPs) in four government-controlled areas experienced moderate to severe hunger in April.

“In April 2025, the Household Hunger Scale (HHS), which indicates extreme starvation, showed that slightly over a quarter (25.3%) of IDPs in selected four government-controlled areas (Aden, Lahj, Marib and Taizz) experienced moderate to severe hunger,” said the report issued this week by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It showed that the prevalence of food security deteriorated slightly from their March levels and that the situation among IDPs is expected to worsen further in the months ahead through September as the lean season sets in from May.

“Around 47% of households in the four governorates had inadequate food consumption, with 34% consuming fewer than four food groups,” FAO said. “About 17.3% of IDP households experienced severe food deprivation, as measured by poor food consumption score,” it added.

In its report, the second assessment conducted in Yemen this year, the UN agency noted that IDPs residing in camp sites generally faced higher rates of severe food deprivation (30%-42%) compared to those living within host communities in Aden, Lahj, and Taizz.

Notably, it said, IDPs in Marib Camp had the lowest levels of severe food deprivation.

Also, FAO said households relying on natural resources for their main source of livelihoods (like bee production and collection/sale of forestry products), casual wage laborers, livestock keepers, pensioners, and those dependent on welfare or charity were among the most food-insecure groups.

About 72% of IDP households experienced various economic shocks - such as high food and fuel prices and limited income opportunities - that affected their ability to access food.

About 58% reported a decrease in their primary income over the past month, with 30% stating their income had more than halved, it said.

In the report conducted with the government’s Executive Unit for the Management of Displacement Camps in Yemen, FAO said that approximately 20% of households resorted to food-based coping strategies, mainly consuming less preferred diets due to food shortages or lack of income to purchase food.

About 66% of surveyed IDP households employed crisis coping strategies, while 10% resorted to emergency coping mechanisms, it added.

Concerning the Food Consumption Score (FCS), FAO said the prevalence of inadequate food consumption (borderline and poor) among IDPs remained relatively stable in the selected four governorates between March and April 2025, with a slight increase from 46.7% to 47.3%.

Meanwhile in camps, the rate worsened significantly, rising from 42.8% to 53.6%, indicating a notable decline in food access or quality.

Conversely, among IDPs in host communities, there was a slight improvement, with the rate decreasing from 47.5% to 46.1%.

This trend, it said, underscores the growing food security and welfare disparities between IDPs in camps and those living within host communities.

According to the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), the proportion of individuals facing immediate food insecurity requiring urgent intervention has slightly increased by 2% since March 2025 with 36% of IDPs in camps and 29% of those in host communities are affected during the reporting month, FAO said.