The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has confirmed up to 400 ships carrying around 6,000 seafarers have been unable to depart safely since fighting broke out on 28 February.
The IMO has verified at least 70 attacks on international shipping since the conflict began, with 19 seafarers killed. Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the IMO, marked the six-month milestone with a statement calling for renewed international cooperation to restore freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Dominguez said: “Six months since the conflict in the Middle East began, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is unresolved. Thousands of seafarers in the region continue to live and work under conditions of heightened risk and uncertainty. While some ships and their crews have been able to leave the Persian Gulf, up to 400 ships carrying around 6,000 seafarers have been unable to depart safely since the conflict began.
“The impacts of this crisis are grave, both in the short and long term. The disruption of vital supply chains for fuels, fertilizers and other commodities has consequences for communities and economies around the world.”
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In July, the IMO Council adopted a resolution on the protection of vital shipping lanes, reaffirming that the right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation must not be threatened, impeded, denied, hampered, impaired or suspended.
The resolution called for a coordinated and sustainable return to unhindered navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Dominguez said renewed political will and cooperation were needed to deliver on that commitment.
“I call on all Member States and the shipping industry to work together with IMO and the wider United Nations system, to advance practical solutions to restore the freedom of navigation through the Strait,” he said. “The deterioration of maritime security around the globe – from the Black Sea to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, is detrimental to us all. But it is particularly distressing for the thousands of innocent seafarers affected.”
The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints for global energy and commodity flows, with the ongoing disruption compounding wider maritime security pressures affecting shipping routes from the Black Sea to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
For more information:
International Maritime Organization – https://www.imo.org/
