The United States condemns the latest reckless and indiscriminate attacks on civilian vessels by the Houthis. This includes the deliberate attacks on the M/V Tutor, which sank earlier this week, and the M/V Verbena, which is abandoned and drifting in the Red Sea, posing a navigational hazard to other maritime traffic. The Houthis previously killed three sailors aboard the MV True Confidence on March 6 and sank the MV Rubymar on March 2, posing a serious threat to the Red Sea ecosystem. Houthi attacks impede vital humanitarian assistance reaching Yemenis and pose serious risks to economic and humanitarian conditions in countries in the Red Sea region and the broader global economy. These actions are a clear failure to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2722’s demand that the Houthis “must immediately cease all such attacks.”
The United States is clear that we and our partners will continue to take action as necessary to defend freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi attacks in this vital international waterway and to protect critical economic and humanitarian assistance to countries in the region. We once again call on the Houthis to release all detainees, including the UN, diplomatic, and non-governmental organization staff they detained earlier this month. The Houthis have used misinformation to blame outsiders for these abhorrent detentions to deflect attention from their own negligence. We will not rest until all detainees are released.
houthi-sinking-of-merchant-ships-in-the-red-sea-united-states-department-of-state
