IMF warns of “negative” impact if Red Sea disruption escalates due to Yemen’s strikes

Current Houthi strikes on shipping are “not significant enough to impact the global economy, the risk is more spillover of violence and prolonging the conflict and then uncertainty is high,” Kristalina Georgieva told CNN’s Richard Quest at the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday.

“How would that impact the world? I worry it could be quite negative.”

Attacks by Yemeni fighters in the Red Sea effectively closed one of the world’s main trade routes to most container ships.

In solidarity with the Palestinians in besieged territory, the Yemeni armed forces have targeted ships in the Red Sea with owners linked to Israel or those going to and from ports in the occupied territories.

In response, the US has formed a military coalition against Yemeni forces in the Red Sea and endangered maritime navigation in the strategic waterway.

The US and the UK, backed by Bahrain, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, struck more than 60 targets at almost 30 locations in Yemen on Friday, killing five people and injuring six others.

On Saturday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that a “follow-on action” was conducted against a Yemeni radar facility in Sana’a by the Navy destroyer USS Carney using Tomahawk land attack missiles.