STC Presidium Calls on International Organizations to Swiftly Intervene to Stop Disastrous Consequences of the Sinking Ship “Rubymar”

The Presidium of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) held its regular scheduled meeting, today, Tuesday, chaired by President Aidarous Qasisem Al-Zubaidi, President of the STC.

In its meeting, the Presidium stood against the serious repercussions of the Houthi militia’s continued targeting of commercial ships in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait, with a focus on the targeting of the “Sea Champion” cargo ship, which was attacked last week while en route to the port of Aden carrying thousands of tons of humanitarian aid, and the British ship "Rubymar," with thousands of tons of combustible fertilizers and dangerous chemicals, as per a report submitted to the STC by Dr. Saleh Mohsen Al-Haj, Director of the General Directorate of Foreign Affairs (GDFA) of the STC.

In this regard, the Presidium called on international organizations concerned with protecting the marine environment to quickly intervene and extend a helping hand to de-limit the consequences of the environmental disaster resulting from the delinquent ship "Rubymar,” which is still partially afloat but slowly sinking in territorial waters, especially with the seriousness of the situation of the stranded tanker that was targeted by the Houthi militia in the mid of last week, as its sinking will lead to an unprecedented environmental disaster in territorial waters.

In a separate context, the Presidium reviewed the measures taken by the Ministry of Electricity in preparation for the coming summer, according to a detailed report submitted by the Minister of Electricity, Eng. Man'ea Bin Yameen, in which he summarized the efforts exerted by the ministry to enhance and stabilize generating capacity during the summer.

In addition to that, Eng. Bin Yameen mentioned in his report the challenges facing the ministry, foremost of which are the repercussions resulting from the Houthi escalation in the Red Sea, which caused transportation costs and insurance to surge, and many maritime shipping lanes refrained from transporting fuel to the country ports in avoidance of Houthi targeting in territorial waters.

In another context, the Presidium was briefed on the efforts of the National Southern Media Authority (NSMA) to promote the media reality in the South in the course of a detailed report presented by Mr. Salem Thabet Al-Awlaqi, head of NSMA, in which he summarized the efforts in reformulating the STC’s media and political discourse, upgrading the media reality, and re-organizing media work in the capital, Aden, and other governorates of the South to ensure the promotion of press freedom in the South, as an approach fully adopted and strived by the STC.

To the end of its meeting, the Presidium discussed miscellaneous topics and developments on the local scene, in addition to a range of organizational topics related to the work of the various bodies of the STC, and took the appropriate measures.