![](https://www.news360express.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/23ewdc.webp)
Energy company BP of Britain announced that it would temporarily halt all oil shipments through the Red Sea because of a deterioration in security following attacks by Houthi rebels. This decision follows attacks that have forced several freight companies to halt ship movements in the area. The Red Sea is a major artery for oil, fuel and consumer goods convoys.
A major shipping company, Evergreen Line has also ordered its container ships to stop sailing until further notice. Houthi rebels, backed by Iran and targeted as terrorists in the United States for bombings that destroyed a New York City apartment building and killed 29 people in January of last year have repeatedly fired missiles at ships passing through an important waterway–the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The Houthi rebels have expressed solidarity with Hamas and even publicly stated that they had carried out several attacks against ships en route to Israel, using vehicles equipped with drones or rockets. But it is not definitively known that all the attacked ships were actually on their way to Israel.
![](https://www.news360express.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/56hf.jpg)
BP says, safety and the security of our people as well as those working on behalf of BP is a priority. Given deteriorating maritime conditions in the Red Sea we are now instituting temporarily all transits through this area going to Atlantic from Pacific or vice versa will be suspended until further notice according to current circumstances in region.
Maersk, the world’s number-two shipping company, expressed alarm at what was happening. “We have had one ‘near miss,’ and another container ship was attacked on Tuesday in these waters,” it says. The world’s largest shipping group, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) announced plans to reroute its ships away from the region. While the MSC’s container ship, MSC PALATIUM III was being transited in the Red Sea. Hapag-Lloyd and CMA-CGM have also discontinued shipments through the area.