William Molinié, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / POOL / AFP
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7:20 a.m., January 12, 2024
The French frigate Provence has been crisscrossing the Red Sea since December 8, to accompany French-flagged ships in the sector in the midst of an offensive by the Houthis, an armed organization from Yemen, in parallel with the Israel-Hamas conflict. The maritime highway has transformed into a real battlefield.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, at the extreme south of the Red Sea, has become an extremely strategic place on the globe. A ship passes every 20 minutes through this maritime gateway for Europe in Asia, under heavy fire from the Houthis, a Yemeni organization armed by Iran, since October 7, 2023 and the Hamas attack in Israel. The organization targets Israeli targets passing through this passage, and therefore, international maritime traffic is greatly impacted.
Late Tuesday evening, American forces foiled an unprecedented attack in the area led by the Houthis from Yemen. It is in this context that a French frigate, the Provence, crisscrosses the sector to accompany ships flying the French flag.
Missiles intercepted by the French navy
This multi-mission frigate entered the Red Sea on December 8, and since that date, the Houthis have launched 26 attacks. Around twenty ballistic missiles and around ten anti-ship missiles were fired, some of which were intercepted by the American and French navies.
The Houthis systematically proceed in the same way, observes a military source. They are trying to isolate a cargo ship with explosive drones to storm it and bring it back to the Yemeni coast, but they regularly get the wrong targets, continues this source, hence the uncertainty which is affecting the maritime shipowners. Red.
-22% traffic on the Red Sea
On this maritime highway transformed into a battlefield since October 7, missiles lick the surface of the sea at a speed of 900 km/h. Result: traffic fell by 22% last month. Ships now circumnavigate Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, which represents two to three weeks of additional travel.
This mechanically increases the costs of transporting goods, while 25% of container ships in the world normally use the Red Sea passage. A colossal share when we know that a single cargo ship represents 250 linear km of trucks. It’s like a huge line of 38-tonne trucks, one behind the other, from Bordeaux to Toulouse.