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Indian sailors aboard Rwabee seized by Houthis last month are safe: MEA
11 crew members including the seven Indians are being held by the Houthis after they seized the vessel Rwabee in the Red Sea on January 2.
NEW DELHI: India said on Thursday the seven Indian sailors taken captive by Yemen’s Houthi rebels when they seized a UAE-flagged merchant vessel on January 2 are safe though the captors still have not provided access to the hostages.
Eleven crew members, including the Indian, are being held by the Houthis after they seized the vessel Rwabee in the Red Sea. The rebels claimed the vessel was carrying “military supplies” and had entered Yemeni waters off the coast of Hudaydah “without authorisation”. Both India and the United Arab Emirates have demanded the release of the crew.
“Physical access to the crew has not been made available, including through the UN mission in Hudaydah,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a virtual weekly news briefing.
“We remain in touch with various sources, including through our embassies in the region. We do know that the captors allowed one of the Indian sailors to speak with his wife...on January 28. The sailor told his wife that all the crew members are safe. We will continue to monitor this case,” he said.
The Indian side earlier established contact with the UN Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement or UNMHA to ascertain the well-being of the sailors and to convey a message to the Houthis that they should be released at the earliest.
Besides the seizure of the Rwabee, two Indians were killed and two more injured in a drone attack by the Houthis on Abu Dhabi on January 17. The attack was carried out in apparent retaliation for the UAE’s role in the coalition fighting the Houthis.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar condemned the “terror attack” of January 17 during a telephone conversation with his UAE counterpart.
