Over one hundred container ships are taking the long route around the Horn of Africa to avoid attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, while the U.S. determines how to respond to the aggression.
The Red Sea, along with Egypt’s Suez Canal, serves as a major shipping route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. As the most efficient maritime trade route for ships traveling between Europe and Asia, the Red Sea sees 12 percent of global trade pass through its waters. Rerouting around Africa adds seven to 14 days of transit to a container vessel’s journey. This extended route will result in higher prices, particularly for countries most reliant on maritime trade through the Red Sea.
The recent slate of attacks by Houthis on commercial ships amounts to an escalation of the Israel-Hamas war. The Houthis, an Islamist militant group, initially targeted ships linked to Israel in a show of support for Hamas. The violence then spread to other carriers from nations allied with Israel, and the US has yet to enact a definitive response.
On Sunday, the Suez Canal Authority acknowledged that 55 ships had been rerouted since November 19 in light of “ongoing tensions” in the Red Sea.
Major shipping lines MSC and Hapag-Lloyd, which have been directly targeted by Houthi attacks, said last week they would avoid using the shipping channel altogether. Other lines, CMA CGM and Maersk, instructed their vessels to pause transit until further notice. Evergreen and OOCL announced that they would suspend all cargo shipping to and from Israel for the time being.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched over 100 attacks with one-way drones and ballistic missiles, targeting vessels that represent more than 35 nations.
On December 18, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin formally announced a multinational security initiative to combat Houthi violence in the region, Operation Prosperity Guardian.
“Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.”
Austin noted that this new collective effort will fall under the purview of the Combined Maritime Forces, a maritime partnership based in Bahrain made up of 39 nations. Its various task forces primarily secure major trading ports in the Middle East.
Although the U.S. has announced Operation Prosperity Guardian, it is unclear when the new security initiative will come into effect. No U.S. military response has yet taken place in the region. Diplomacy has thus far remained the preferred approach by U.S. leaders.