Saudi-led coalition still holding 19 fuel ships: YPC

SANAA, Sep. 29 (YPA) – The Yemeni Petroleum Company (YPC) said on Monday that the Saudi-led coalition is still holding 19 oil vessels, including two ships loaded with ‘mazut’ and two ships carrying domestic gas.

The company confirmed, in a statement issued Monday, that the total tonnage of the held ships reaches 409,055 tons of gasoline and diesel, noting that the longest detention periods for those ships reached 183 days, exceeding the period of arbitrary detention in previous cases.

“The detention of ships for this long period is a clear violation of the provisions of the International Convention on Human Rights and the rules of international humanitarian law,” the company said.

The statement considered that these realistic data completely contradict what was stated in the briefings of the UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, before the Security Council, on January 16, 2020, and on October 22, 2019, during which he claimed that fuel ships arrive at Hodeidah port without any obstacles.

The company affirmed that the coalition countries continue to blockade Yemeni citizens through maritime piracy acts aimed at impeding the arrival of ships of oil derivatives, domestic gas, food, medicine and other urgent needs to the port of Hodeidah, despite completing all the procedures of examination and verification in Djibouti through the UNVIM and obtaining the UN permits.

YPA