Most Ships Circumvent Hope Cape
US Continues Airstrikes on Yemen Mainland
Due to attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on the Red Sea route, many commercial ships have shifted to alternative routes, causing the toll revenue of Egypt's Suez Canal to reportedly halve. Despite the United States' ongoing strikes on mainland Yemen, the Houthi rebels' drone attacks continue, raising concerns that Egypt's economic difficulties will worsen.
On the 4th (local time), according to Bloomberg News, Osama Rabie, head of the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA), appeared on local TV and stated, "Last month's toll revenue was about $428 million (approximately 570 billion KRW)," adding, "This is just over half of last year's toll revenue of $804 million for the same period."
The number of ships passing through the Suez Canal also decreased by 36.1% compared to the same month last year. This is because the Houthi rebels launched indiscriminate attacks on merchant ships and oil tankers in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the gateway from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, prompting many vessels to take the alternative route around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa due to safety concerns.
Egypt, already suffering from severe inflation and a foreign exchange crisis due to the combined effects of COVID-19, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and clashes between Israel and Hamas, is facing intensified economic hardship as its major source of income, the Suez Canal tolls, has decreased.
For the Suez Canal traffic to normalize, the Houthi rebels must cease their airstrikes. Accordingly, the U.S. military has launched offensives against Houthi bases on mainland Yemen, but has yet to achieve significant results.
In particular, after three U.S. soldiers were killed in a drone attack by pro-Iran armed forces at a U.S. base in Jordan on the 27th of last month, the U.S. military has been conducting continuous retaliatory operations. However, these have been carried out in a limited manner due to concerns about escalation, preventing them from delivering a decisive blow.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced in a briefing that "Six allied countries, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, conducted airstrikes on the 3rd against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen." The airstrikes targeted 36 facilities, including Houthi command and control centers, missile launchers, radar bases, and weapons storage sites scattered across 13 locations, including Yemen's capital Sana'a and its vicinity.
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