The operator of a UAE cargo ship that sank on Thursday morning has confirmed that the search for two crew members is continuing.
“The remaining two crew are still missing and search going on,” Salem Al Makrani Cargo said.
The cargo vessel sank in the northern Gulf in severe weather.
Twenty-eight crew members were rescued on Thursday. The ship’s operator previously told The National all of the crew had been rescued.
It is believed the two missing crew members are from Pakistan.
Salem Al Makrani Cargo, based in Dubai, identified the ship as the Al Salmy 6, a roll-on/roll-off cargo vessel used to transport vehicles to Iraq. It was about 45 kilometres south of Iran, Iranian state media said, which is in international waters.
“On March 15th morning, Ro-Ro Al Salmy 6 has sailed from Hamriya port, Dubai-bound to Umm Qasr in loaded conditions (general cargo and cars) and as from 16th late evening Al Salmy 6 started facing rough weather,” a statement from the cargo company read.
“On 17th at 03:00 hrs, we received a call from one vessel informing that Al Salmy 6 is not under command and that master has sent a distress alert to vessels in vicinity.
“One tanker, Front Savannah, has received the distress, and informed [Assalouyeh] port control — Iran who immediately arranged rescue for the vessel.”
The statement concluded by saying that although many of the crew had been rescued, two remained unaccounted for.
“By 10:00 hrs, we knew that Al Salmy 6 has sunk completely, but [thanks] to Iranian rescue team, they succeeded to save the lives of 27 out of 30, and one was saved by the tanker Front Savannah. Remaining two crew are still missing and search going on.”
Captain Nizar Qaddoura, operations manager at Salem Al Makrani Cargo, said the ship encountered rough and stormy weather, then capsized. Weather service reports said waves were up to six metres high.
The crew comprised citizens of Sudan, India, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, Capt Qaddoura said.
Iran’s official Irna news agency quoted local officials who said several rescue boats were sent and a helicopter was deployed.
The vessel sank in “unfavourable weather conditions and strong winds”, one official said.
The 138-metre vessel left Rashid Port in Dubai on Tuesday and was expected at Umm Qasr Port in Basra on Friday.
Al Salmy 6 was built in 1983, making it 39 years old.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The years Ramadan fell in May
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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High profile Al Shabab attacks
- 2010: A restaurant attack in Kampala Uganda kills 74 people watching a Fifa World Cup final football match.
- 2013: The Westgate shopping mall attack, 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers and four gunmen are killed.
- 2014: A series of bombings and shootings across Kenya sees scores of civilians killed.
- 2015: Four gunmen attack Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya and take over 700 students hostage, killing those who identified as Christian; 148 die and 79 more are injured.
- 2016: An attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde Somalia kills 180 soldiers.
- 2017: A suicide truck bombing outside the Safari Hotel in Mogadishu kills 587 people and destroys several city blocks, making it the deadliest attack by the group and the worst in Somalia’s history.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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