World Food Programme Vessel ’VOS Theia’ Attacked Off Yemen – gCaptain
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M/V VOS Theia.
Photo : Vroon Offshore
Unidentified forces attacked a U.N. aid vessel off the main Yemeni port of Hodeidah at the weekend and started a fire in the engine room, port authorities said on Monday.
The United Nations aid chief, Mark Lowcock, confirmed there had been an incident but said it was now over and everyone was safe, without elaborating.
The vessel used by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) was attacked after delivering a shipment at Hodeidah, Yemen’s Red Sea Ports Corporation said. The port is held by the Iranian-aligned armed Houthi movement which has taken large parts of the country in a three-year-old war.
A WFP spokeswoman said an unidentified armed group “aboard a skiff had opened fire and attempted to take over” the vessel that was some 60 km (38 miles)) off the coast of Hodeidah.
“Both the crew and the vessel are safe, with no injuries or obvious damage to the vessel,” spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said in a statement sent to Reuters.
The ship was waiting in anchorage for permission to leave from a Saudi-led military coalition, the Ports Corporation added. The coalition is fighting the Houthis and controls the nearby Zubair island.