In the first incident of its kind since the Houthi escalation in the Red Sea, the Yemeni government announced that the cargo ship "Rubymar," which was targeted by the Houthis last month, sank in the Red Sea last night, warning of an environmental disaster. The cargo ship was flying the Belize flag and was managed by GMZ Shipping Management in Lebanon for a company affiliated with Golden Adventure Shipping S.A in the United Kingdom.
Built in 1997, the ship was constructed by the Japanese company Onomichi and participated in the Black Sea Grain Initiative in 2022, according to information from the "Wikipedia" encyclopedia. "Rubymar" is a large cargo ship measuring 171 meters in length and 27 meters in width, equipped with Mitsubishi engines that provide 7059 kilowatts of power.
Previous Names
It was previously named "Kin Shen" in 2007, "Chatham Island" in 2009, and "Ikaria Island" in 2020, before being renamed "Rubymar." In 2022, it participated in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, transporting 35,000 tons of wheat from Ukraine to Egypt during the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Carrying Hazardous Materials
It is notable that the Houthis targeted the British ship on February 19, which resulted in an oil spill in the Red Sea spanning 18 miles, amid fears of toxic material leakage from the ship's cargo, which includes 21,999 metric tons of "highly hazardous" class 5.1 fertilizers, according to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) code, an international guide for the transportation of packaged hazardous products. This category includes ammonium nitrate, along with products containing ammonium nitrate, which contributed to the massive explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, resulting in over 220 fatalities.
