Cargo Ship Runs Aground in US, a Year after Sister Vessel Blocked Suez Canal

The Ever Forward (pictured) has the same owners as the Ever Given, which clogged up the Suez Canal last year. (EPA)
The Ever Forward (pictured) has the same owners as the Ever Given, which clogged up the Suez Canal last year. (EPA)
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Cargo Ship Runs Aground in US, a Year after Sister Vessel Blocked Suez Canal

The Ever Forward (pictured) has the same owners as the Ever Given, which clogged up the Suez Canal last year. (EPA)
The Ever Forward (pictured) has the same owners as the Ever Given, which clogged up the Suez Canal last year. (EPA)

The Ever Forward container ship is currently grounded in the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, according to the US Coast Guard, nearly a year after another ship run by the same company blocked the Suez Canal for six days.

The container ship is operated by Evergreen Marine Corp Taiwan Ltd, the same Taiwanese transportation company that operates the Ever Given. The Ever Given ran aground last March, blocking traffic in the Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest waterways and the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

The Coast Guard received reports on Sunday that the Ever Forward was grounded and is now conducting checks every four hours to ensure the safety of the crew on board and marine life, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Breanna Centeno.

The Coast Guard says the ship is grounded outside of the canal and is not blocking the traffic of other container ships.

Evergreen Marine said in an emailed statement that the incident had not caused a fuel leakage, and did not block the navigation channel or disrupt traffic entering or leaving the port.

"Evergreen is arranging for divers to conduct underwater inspections to confirm any damage to the vessel, and is coordinating with all the concerned parties to refloat the ship as soon as possible," it said.

"The cause of the incident is under investigation by the competent authority."



Floods in Eastern DR Congo Kill More Than 100

People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)
People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)
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Floods in Eastern DR Congo Kill More Than 100

People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)
People in Kinshasa’s Pompage district after the Congo River overflowed. (AFP/Getty Images file)

Raging floods rushing through a village during the night killed more than 100 people, many of them children as they slept, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, local officials told AFP on Saturday.

The floods were sparked by torrential rains and ripped through the Kasaba village in the Sud Kivu province during the night of Thursday-Friday, Bernard Akili, a regional official, told AFP.

Torrential rains caused the Kasaba river to burst its banks overnight, with the rushing waters "carrying everything in their path, large stones, large trees and mud, before razing the houses on the edge of the lake," he said.

"The victims who died are mainly children and elderly," he said, adding that 28 people were injured and some 150 homes were destroyed.

Sammy Kalonji, the regional administrator, said the torrent killed at least 104 people and caused "enormous material damage."

Another local resident told AFP that some 119 bodies had been found by Saturday.

The village, which sits on the Tanganyika lake and is only accessible by the lake, does not have internet service, a local humanitarian worker told AFP.

Such natural disasters are frequent in the DRC, particularly on the shores of the great lakes in the east of the country, with the surrounding hills weakened by deforestation.

In 2023, floods killed 400 people in several communities located on the shores of Lake Kivu, in South Kivu province.