Spanish Activists to kick out Saudi ship loading weapons for Yemen war

SANAA, April.3 (YPA) – The Bahri Hofuf ship was already kicked out of Bilbao, but sneaked into Santander.
In the first days of March, a Saudi cargo ship docked on the Spanish port of Santander to load weapons with Yemen as its final destination and activists are trying to kick it away.
The Saudi Bahri Hofuf ship had been loading weapons since July in the Bilbao port until it got expired due to pressure from individual activists and organizations in the Basque Country, including Green Peace’s local chapter.
But that did not mean the ship had disappeared from Spanish waters. The Basque NGO Ongi Etorri (which means “welcome” in Euskera and is usually busy taking care of incoming refugees) had been tracking the Saudi ship through its mandatory geolocator device when the Bahri turned it off for 24 hours, only to reemerge already docked in Santander.
“The ship had been docked in Santander already when the system was reconnected,” said Aurora Otero, an activist from the Safe Passage (Pasaje Seguro) NGO, who also said the ship flag identifying its dangerous cargo and its name erased to prevent identification.
The activists have carried out a series of informative brigades, lobbying efforts and grassroots networking in order the expel ship from the country, gathering more than 18,000 signatures so far in a Change.org petition.
“Even though we think this is the first time this ship comes to Cantabria, we do not want it to become a regular thing. This ship is not welcomed. The weapons it’s loading will be used to massacre Yemeni people in an extremely cruel conflict that’s underreported by media. A war that has taken the lives of more than 10,000 people and has left two million displaced, half of them with no shelter, “says the petition.
Led by the Podemos representative in Bizkaia David Carracedo, the political party’s parliamentary group confirmed that the Bahri Hofuf ship turned off its tracking device on March 7, 00:11 a.m. near the commune of Saint-Nazaire in France, only to be reconcribed by 08:45 a.m. March 8 in Santander.
The activists think that the ship is loading weapons such as grenades and rockets manufactured in Alava, Guipuzkoa and Burgos.
“For the security of those who live in Santander and because the weapons that the Saudi Kingdom ship is loading will certainly kill a lot of civilians in Yemen, the Santander municipality and the Government of Cantabria should deny authorization for the Bahri Hofuf to load death in its warehouses, “the activists said.
Source: telesurtv.net/english/news
Emad