The head of the European Union naval operation in the Red Sea says more warships will be needed if merchant vessels demand greater protection from Houthi rocket attacks.
Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, of Greece, said all the ships that asked had received protection from the four frigates of the $8.7m Aspides mission in the highest-risk areas of the southern Red Sea.
The EU mission has escorted 68 ships and successfully defended 11 attacks since it was set up less than two months ago.
But he said the area that the warships patrolled to protect vessels transiting the Suez Canal and Red Sea could be expanded in the future. He said the area now being patrolled is twice the size of the 27-nation EU.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have threatened to expand their own area of operations, according to an alert by UK security firm Ambrey Analytics.
If the demand for protection from commercial shipping increases, “we have to increase the assets available in the operational area”, Gryparis told reporters in Brussels.
“If we increase the number of assets and our presence, then we might be able, in the near future, to deploy the assets also to the rest of the area of operation.”
The Houthi rebels have launched 80 attacks against commercial ships since mid-November, according to Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief.
He told reporters that the Houthis had become “quite autonomous” and said Iran did not have full control over the group’s decision making.
Most of the attacks targeting shipping have been repulsed or missed their targets. But the first seafarers were killed in a missile attack on the 50,448-dwt bulker True Confidence (built 2011) on 6 March.
The crew of the 5,100-ceu Galaxy Leader (built 2002) are also still being held after the car carrier was seized by the Houthis in November.
The attacks have led to a sharp reduction in ships passing through the Red Sea.
Traffic through the Suez Canal was down 64% in March compared with a year earlier, according to the PortWatch project, which is backed by the International Monetary Fund.
Total shipping volume equivalent to 2% of 2023 global maritime trade has been diverted from the Red Sea since mid-December, it said. That was equivalent to about 2,900 ships.
The Houthis on Saturday claimed responsibility for attacks on three commercial vessels and US warships during an uptick of operations.
One of the reputed attacks, which has not been confirmed, targeted a vessel operating between Mombasa in Kenya and Mogadishu in Somalia, Ambrey said.
“This was the first Houthi claim to target a vessel in the Indian Ocean,” it said. “The Houthis are assessed to be capable of targeting merchant shipping in a considerably wider area.”
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- Houthis claim to have targeted four ships off Yemen over past three days
