AL-MUKALLA: At least 38 people were killed or are still missing after torrential flooding and heavy rain hit a highland region in Yemen’s Mahweet province on Tuesday.
Yemen’s Red Crescent provincial office in Mahweet said that its teams are working “under very difficult conditions” in Melhan district to retrieve the bodies of at least 38 people who are believed to have died or are still missing, adding that some hard-hit villages are still isolated due to washed-out roads.
Landslides caused by strong rains broke two hilltop dams and slammed through numerous highland villages in Melhan on Tuesday night, burying or washing away homes with residents inside.
Local authorities first reported 33 dead before announcing on Wednesday night that the number of fatalities and missing villagers had risen to 38, urging immediate humanitarian aid to unblock roads, assist stranded people and locate the missing.
Images broadcast on local media showed a dead woman clutching her dead child, who had been uncovered after being buried in mud.
Rescuers also found bodies beneath trees and rocks, and in valleys.
According to UNICEF headquarters in Yemen, the most recent flood season has impacted more than 38,000 people throughout the country.
In a separate development, the EU naval mission in the Red Sea, known as EUNAVFOR ASPIDES, said it had found no evidence of an oil leak from a burning oil tanker in the Red Sea as the Yemeni Houthis agreed to allow tugboats to pull the vessel.
The EU mission on Thursday renewed its willingness to take part in any international action to rescue the MV Sounion oil tanker in the Red Sea, adding that the ship is not leaking oil and remains anchored.
“EUNAVFOR ASPIDES is preparing to facilitate any courses of action, in coordination with European authorities and neighboring countries, to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis, thereby contributing to the protection of global goods,” the EU mission said in a post on X.
It came as the leader of the Houthi militia, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, said on Thursday that his forces stormed the MV Sounion oil tanker in the Red Sea and planted explosives on board before blowing the vessel up.
The Houthi leader vowed to order new attacks on ships until Israel ends its war in Gaza.
Last week, a French warship rescued the crew of the MV Sounion after a Houthi strike blew apart the ship’s engine, starting fires on the deck and causing the ship to lose its capacity to maneuver.
In a televised speech, Al-Houthi boasted that last week, two groups of the militia’s naval forces broke into the MV Sounion oil tanker, which was carrying almost 1 million barrels of crude oil, and planted explosives inside before blowing them up, despite the risk of causing a major disaster for Red Sea traffic and the environment. “Two navy crews attacked the ship in two phases and destroyed its cargo by rigging and detonating it,” Al-Houthi said, claiming that MV Sounion was delivering oil to Israel.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk two more and launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at international commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea as well as other shipping lanes off Yemen, claiming to be acting in support of the Palestinian people.
At the same time, the militia’s top negotiator, Mohammed Abdul Sallam, said that the Houthis would allow tugboats to remove the stranded MV Sounion oil tanker, raising hopes of avoiding an ecological calamity in the Red Sea. “We let the flaming oil ship Sounion be towed after many foreign parties — particularly those from Europe — got in touch with us,” Abdul Sallam said in a post on X.
