After Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, resulting in its sinking in the Red Sea, four people are presumed dead while 15 others are still unaccounted for, according to a European Union naval mission’s statement on Friday. 

“All nearby vessels are advised to have a sharp lookout,” the EU mission said. The Houthis have said they are holding some of the crew. The US Embassy in Yemen — which has operated from Saudi Arabia for about a decade — has described the Houthis as having “kidnapped” the mariners. The death toll is the highest from any seaborne assault carried out by the Iranian-backed Houthis in the crucial maritime trade route, where Rs 1 lakh crore in cargo once passed through annually.

From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones. A new possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the future of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear programme, remain in the balance.