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A vessel sold days ago by US private equity group Oaktree Capital has suffered one of the most serious attacks yet by Yemen’s Houthis, forcing the crew to abandon the burning ship.
A statement on behalf of the managers of the True Confidence said it had been struck early on Wednesday by a missile, assumed to have been launched by Houthi militants in Yemen. The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations office subsequently said the ship had been abandoned by its crew and was drifting.
The vessel is owned by True Confidence SA, registered in Liberia, and managed by Third January Maritime, based in the Greek port of Piraeus. However, it was owned until a few days ago by Oaktree, which is still listed on many maritime databases as the vessel’s owner.
The ship, which was carrying a cargo of steel products and trucks from the Chinese port of Lianyungang to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Aqaba in Jordan, is flying the flag of Barbados.
The Houthis have launched attacks on ships that they describe as Israeli, British or American, in a campaign that the Iranian-backed group has said is seeking to support Gaza’s Palestinians. Many of the attacks have been made on the basis of tenuous links or outdated or incorrect information on maritime websites.
The statement on behalf of Third January said there was “no further information” at present available on the 20 crew and three armed guards on board the ship. In more than 40 previous attacks on ships in waters off Yemen, there have been no serious injuries to crew members. “The vessel is drifting, with a fire continuing onboard,” the managers’ statement said.
The attack seems likely to have been a result of the ship’s previous ownership by Oaktree, one of the US private equity firms that is most active in shipping investment. One person familiar with the issue said the vessel had changed hands to the new owners as recently as February 27.
Martin Kelly, senior Middle East analyst at EOS Risk Group, a maritime security practice, said the Houthis used “a number of open sources” to determine whether a vessel was connected to countries or entities they felt were legitimate targets.
“Entries on open-source platforms such as Marine Traffic are often used, which may not have been updated with recent ownership details, leading to attacks on unconnected vessels,” Kelly said. “This may have been the case with True Confidence.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Houthis’ official spokesman. The statement from the managers of True Confidence said there was “no current connection with any US entity”.
The Houthis started a campaign of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in November, following the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas. The most significant was the attack last month on the dry bulk carrier Rubymar, which resulted in the vessel’s sinking.
The UKMTO said on Wednesday morning that it had received reports of an incident 54 nautical miles south-west of Aden in Yemen. “Vessels in the vicinity have reported a loud bang, and a large plume of smoke sighted,” it wrote on X.
Earlier, it noted an incident from a similar location reporting a vessel that had been hailed over radio by an entity identifying itself as the Yemeni navy and ordering it to change course. The Houthis regard themselves as the legitimate authorities throughout Yemen.
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