Eighty attacks. That is how many strikes on international shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz the International Maritime Organization has verified since the Middle East conflict began on 28 February. At least 22 seafarers have died, and many more were hurt.
The attacks are linked to the US-Iran war. Arsenio Dominguez, who heads the UN maritime agency, wants one point understood: the conflict is no “pretext” to go after “innocent seafarers.”
He also said the blame does not fall on a single party. In the Strait of Hormuz, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, “it is not only one country attacking merchant vessels.”
Roel Hoenders, the IMO’s chief of staff, laid out what that costs. “Apart from putting seafarers’ lives at risk, attacks on merchant shipping are having a severe impact on global supply chains and people everywhere around the world,” he said. Then he added a reminder: “22 crew have already been killed since the conflict in the Middle East began on 28 February.”
Black Sea and Red Sea
The Black Sea and Sea of Azov have seen dozens of deaths in recent months, reportedly, though the agency says precise numbers are hard to verify.
The Red Sea has turned deadly again too. The Houthis hit a merchant vessel on 11 August, and four people died in what the IMO called the latest such attack.
