The Red Sea Ports … an economic front that stands firm in the face of aggression

Report / Ibrahim Al-Roni

Five years of aggression, blockade, killing and destruction of infrastructure, including the transportation sector and in particular the marine sector, represented by the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Corporation, which operates with complete professionalism and impartiality to provide the basic needs of food, medicine and oil derivatives.

The aggression airline targeted the establishment and its ports (Al-Hodeidah, Al-Mukha, Al-Salif, and Ras Issa) in a systematic aggression that demonstrates great hatred for the strategic locations that enjoy economic and investment importance on maritime navigation lines in its various vital fields, especially commercial ones that roam the sea east and west with imports and exports of all types of goods. And commercial goods.

The Ministry of Transport revealed the size of the direct and indirect damages and losses incurred by the Corporation and its ports as a result of the aggression and the siege over a period of five years, according to the initial indicators, which amounted to more than 955 million and 886 thousand dollars.

The report of the Ministry indicated that the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) received a copy of it, that the estimated cost of direct and indirect damages and losses in the container terminal port in Hodeidah is 809 million and 458 thousand dollars, and in the Mukha port in Taiz Governorate 126 million and 9 thousand dollars, while it reached the Port of Salif and Marsa Ras Isa 20 418 thousand dollars.

The report indicated that the severe damage to the port of Hodeidah was the exit of the container terminal for receiving commercial container ships, the destruction of bridge cranes, electric generators, maintenance equipment, hangars and devices, and targeting the revenue slider that enters ships and other important technologies in the work and operation of the port.

The aggression airline also targeted the Mukha port, causing damage to the pavement and the destruction of the launching launch vehicle, and then its occupation by the Emirati aggression forces. 

The aggression aircraft targeted the parking of trucks and locomotives in Ras Isa Easa oilfield, which led to the death of at least 15 workers, the injury of 14 others, and the oil facility of the port that contained large quantities of diesel and set fire to huge losses in the facility’s attachments and a number of tankers.

The CEO of the Foundation, Muhammad Ishaq, affirmed that the Corporation, with its seaports owned and supervised by it, is an essential and central pillar of the national economy, as it feeds various regions of the country with imports of basic and supply materials, with an estimated 70% of the imports that reach its ports, which made the intention and desire urgent for countries. The aggression alliance to impose a suffocating siege on its ports and then direct targeting in order to stop its activity and prevent it from providing its various services. 

He pointed to the multiplicity of crimes and violations of aggression on the Corporation’s ports, beginning with the blockade of its ports since March 26, 2015, and the accompanying obstructions and arbitrary practices on ships arriving over a period of five years in which the countries of aggression focused more on container ships due to the importance they represented, given that most of the food The medicine arrives from it, including the refrigerated containers.

 Isaac explained that the legal definitions of aggression and the imposition of a blockade on the ports of one state or its coasts by the armed forces of another country in accordance with Article (25) and (28) of the Rome Charter and its amendments established for the International Criminal Court in the year 2010 AD, the process of unfair economic blockade and starvation of peoples by preventing the arrival of Their needs for food, medicine, oil derivatives and other needs and preventing the flow and flow of humanitarian aid and relief for civilians are war crimes of the first degree and not subject to statute of limitations, any aggression regardless of its justifications and causes is essentially a violation of international humanitarian law. 

According to the stipulations of the second paragraph of the first article of the Geneva Protocol of 1977, direct targeting of economic establishments and commercial seaports, which are the building block and the basic pillar of the state and enabling any people to maintain their stability and prevent their collapse, are war crimes of the first degree and do not fall under the statute of limitations. 

Isaac pointed out that the blockade caused and continues to be financial problems for the corporation, the merchant and the importer on the one hand, and the citizen on the other hand, as a result of the high prices of many food and pharmaceutical items. 

He stressed the importance of the United Nations playing a greater role in operating the Red Sea ports, and facilitating the entry and inspection of humanitarian and commercial ships in it instead of inspection procedures in Djibouti, especially after the National Team of the Redeployment Coordination Committee fulfilled its obligations in the first phase of the redeployment process in the ports of Hodeidah, As-Salif, Ras Issa. The oil.

The President of the Corporation also stressed the necessity of expediting the provision of ports with their necessary needs of basic projects and equipment, applying the verification and inspection mechanism and providing their common procedural, logistical and technical requirements in accordance with the Stockholm Agreement for Hodeidah, which contributes to facilitating the entry of food and medical aid ships and commercial goods to alleviate the great tragedy experienced by them. The Yemeni people due to the aggression and the siege.

 Regarding the solutions and alternatives adopted by the Corporation’s leadership to ensure the operation of the Hodeidah port, Ishaq said, “The workers and employees of the Corporation made great efforts to continue operating, and the Foundation’s leadership took urgent measures to overcome the effects of the aggression and restart the port of Hodeidah in a record time after it was subjected to direct targeting and systematic destruction.”

As it initiated the implementation of urgent solutions in the operational, administrative and financial aspects, and its focus was more on technical and operational aspects and ensuring the provision of a minimum level of operational readiness to ensure the arrival of relief assistance to all governorates. 

The President of the Corporation explained that targeting the aggression of the container terminal in the port and destroying it and leaving it completely from service, the port lost more than 60 percent of its total operational capacity and its activity fell to its lowest levels. 

This resulted in direct and indirect material damages and losses that it incurred and continues to bear, and the Foundation and Hudaydah Port in particular suffer from it.

He stated that targeting the Foundation has the effect of stopping the implementation of the works and development projects for its ports, such as the Hodeidah Port Development Project and the Mokha Port Development Project, which the Foundation was about to implement in 2015 after it had gone a long way in their implementation procedures during the years 2012-2014 and obtaining Funding in addition to stopping the implementation of plans, projects, annual executive programs and maintenance projects for the purpose of preserving machinery and equipment from damage.

“As a result of the blockade and the aggression countries’ insistence on preventing the import of spare parts necessary for the maintenance process, material damage and losses have occurred to these mechanisms and equipment, in addition to the direct targeting of the Corporation’s ports and the suffocating sea blockade and the consequent stoppage and scarcity of the arrival of various imports,” he said. Directly on the living life of citizens, the loss of workers and employees of the institution and its various ports, and the workers of loading and unloading at the container terminal, as well as the workers of loading and unloading at the port of Mukha for their jobs.

He added that this also led to the stoppage and scarcity of the arrival of imports and the stopping of work in many industrial and service sectors that absorb thousands of manpower, stopping them from working and joining the unemployment platform, not to mention the diminishing commercial activity, the diminishing volume of revenues, and the prevention of the arrival of medicines, which usually arrive inside containers and prevent the arrival of Medical supplies and solutions, especially drugs for patients with heart disease, cancer, kidney failure, sugar and other things, which led to high death rates and the spread of many diseases, as a result of targeting and the ongoing blockade of ports and preventing the entry of ships of oil derivatives from time to time The power is out, medical devices have stopped working, and many patients, especially those with chronic diseases, have died.

Isaac stressed that the other challenge faced by the establishment, in addition to the destruction caused by the aggression to its ports and stopping most of its mechanisms and equipment, is in its human cadre and an attempt to preserve it and enhance the spirit of national responsibility it has to ensure the institution and its ports continue to operate in light of the current exceptional conditions that the country is going through.

He pointed out that the port of Al Hudaydah is playing its humanitarian and relief role in accordance with international laws and norms, and it complies with the International Ports Security System (ISPS) and the ships returned to it are subject to the control procedures of the United Nations (UNVIM).