The Minister of Transport in the Sana’a government, Abdulwahab Al-Durra, on Tuesday revealed that the container ship “TSSpearl” kept burning for nine days and sank off the coast of Jizan in the Red Sea without any response from the coastal authority in Jizan port.
Al-Durra called on the United Nations to intervene and start a transparent investigation to reach the causes of this accident and the inhumane behavior of the Saudi authorities.
He explained that the shipping company reported that the accident started with a fire in the engines that moved to the cockpit and the Saudi maritime authorities were called, but they did not response, but rather met them in a state of gloating.
The crew on the ship confirmed during their appeal to the Saudi Navy that they would bear the costs of extinguishing the fire, but they did not respond, he added.
The Minister of Transport said, “Compensation will be made through the shipping company and insurance companies, and we hope that the outstanding problems will be resolved.”
He pointed out that two years ago, Sana’a demanded from the United Nations that international shipping lines be returned to the ports of Hodeida and Aden, but until today any ship that wants to reach Yemen stops at the ports of Jeddah and Jizan.
It is noteworthy that the incident of the ship, which was carrying containers of goods of food and medicine belonging to Yemeni traders benefiting the people of Yemen, comes in the context of the war and the siege imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on the Yemeni people.
