Saudi coalition seizes another fuel ship in Yemen

Essam al-Mutawakel, a spokesman for the Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), said in a tweet on Wednesday that the Saudi-led coalition seized a ship named SEA LION carrying 29,545 tons of diesel, and banned the vessel from docking at Hudaydah Port.

He stressed that the ban took place although the ship was of a humanitarian nature and had been inspected and obtained clearances from the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen.

Earlier this year, Yemen’s Minister of Oil and Minerals Ahmad Abdullah Dares warned that the Saudi seizure of ships carrying petroleum products could lead to the suspension of the service sectors and cause “a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies — including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015.

The war was launched to eliminate Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall former Yemen’s president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The war, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but it has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people.

The UN says more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger. The world body also refers to the situation in Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories.