Ocean of trouble

Commercial ships are soft targets, but any threat to them will disrupt the world's supply chains

- VICE ADMIRAL (RETD) BISWAJIT DASGUPTA

TWO DRONE STRIKES on December 23—one on MV Chem Pluto, about 200 nautical miles southwest of Veraval (Gujarat), and another on MT Sai Baba, in the Red Sea—were the latest of 15 attacks on commercial shipping allegedly by the Houthi rebels of Yemen since October 2017. At a time when the world started thinking that piracy off the Somalia coast and in the Gulf of Aden had reduced significantly and the safety outlook for commercial shipping was improving, these attacks have worrisome portents.

There are, however, major differences between the piracy threat and the recent drone attacks. Piracy off Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, which started in 2008, was a result of feuds of warlords and misgovernance in Somalia leaving large sections of its people impoverished. These people had no option but to resort to alternative ways of earning a livelihood that included small-time thefts from ships at anchorage, armed robbery and piracy at the higher end. The ransoms paid out by shipowners kept the trade going. Concerted efforts by maritime forces at sea and better governance on land ensured the gradual reduction of piracy to a trickle and the piracy high-risk zone was shrunk considerably.

The Houthi attacks are in a different league. While they are also a result of misgovernance or internal feuds between opposing parties on land, the Houthi movement has more specific objectives against specific entities. The Houthis are a Shia group that has been on a warpath for many years with the ruling dispensation in Yemen. The Houthi movement started in 1992 and has continued with varying levels of violence. They are against Saudi Arabian and US support to the Yemen government and aligned ideologically with the Hezbollah. The Houthis have reportedly assisted Hamas in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.