Background
MV Eternity C
MV Eternity C was a bulk carrier which sailed under the flag of Liberia. The ship had completed a humanitarian delivery for the World Food Programme to Berbera, Somalia, where it has arrived in late June and left around noon on 6 July, and was heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to refuel. [8] [9] [10]
Prior attack
A similar incident occurred prior to that involving Eternity C. [11] On 6 July, the Houthis launched missile and drone attack at cargo ship Magic Seas [11] [12] in the Red Sea, southwest of the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah in Yemen. [13] The said bulk carrier was carrying iron and fertiliser from China to Turkey. [12] The strikes reportedly caused damages on the vessel's cargo, and as reported by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), set the ship ablaze, [12] causing it to sink. [11] [14] All 22 personnel aboard—the crew of 17 Filipinos, a Romanian and a Vietnamese; and three Sri Lankan security guards [15] —abandoned the ship [13] prior to its sinking, [16] were rescued by a passing Emirati merchant vessel, [12] and were later brought to Djibouti. [12]
The Yemen's Iran-backed group, on 7 July, claimed responsibility for the assault; [12] and released a video footage the following day, showing armed men boarding the vessel, and the vessel's explosion and sinking. [11] [15] Significantly, it was their first known attack in the area within few months. [13]
Both vessels, Liberian-flagged and Greek-operated, [11] had docked in Israel in the past. [16]
Events
The Eternity C, while navigating the Red Sea off Hodeidah in western Yemen [16] [17] and en route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, [18] was attacked twice by Houthi militants [16] with gunfire, remote-controlled sea drones loaded with explosives, [18] and rocket-propelled grenades from skiffs. [16] [19] The first occurred in the afternoon of 7 July 2025; while the second in the night of 8 July forced the crew to jump into the water. [16] The bulk carrier was badly damaged [16] and, as UKMTO and the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, eventually sank in the morning of 9 July. [16] [19]
There were 25 people reportedly aboard the vessel—a 22-member crew (21 Filipinos and a Russian) [19] and a three-member private maritime security team (two Indians and a Greek). [20] [14] [21]
Operation Aspides, the European Union's maritime security mission that coordinated rescue operations, [19] later presumed the deaths of at least four in the attack and its aftermath. [22] [21] On 4 December, the Department of Migrant Workers in the Philippines confirmed that three Filipino crew members died, whose remains were later transported back to their country; [23] while another reportedly remained missing after jumping out of the ship. [24]
Search and rescue operations
On 9 July, a search and rescue mission began overnight. [21] Operation Aspides later reported that ten mariners had been rescued until 10 July, including eight Filipino crew members and two security personnel [19] —its Greek leader [20] and an Indian. [25] They were later brought by a ship to Jizan, Saudi Arabia. [26]
Also on 9 July, the Houthis issued a statement claiming responsibility on the attack, saying that the ship allegedly headed toward Eilat, Israel. They also released a video showing a cargo vessel sinking after the attack. [19] They claimed having taken some mariners to an undisclosed location, [19] [22] but offered no evidence. [22] Meanwhile, United States authorities in Yemen accused the rebels of kidnapping the crew members, [22] and demanded their immediate release. [19] [27]
On 13 July, two private security firms running the search for the missing individuals announced that the vessel's owner called off the operations. [22] [26] At that time, 11 others remained unaccounted for; [22] as Cosmoship, the vessel's manager based in Greece, considered the remaining 15 (then included five deaths as claimed by maritime security sources) as missing. [26]
Detention and release of remaining mariners
On 17 July, Russia's state-run RIA news agency reported that a Russian crew member had been picked up by the Yemeni Navy. [28] Later identified as an electrician, [29] he had been hospitalized in Sana'a after being badly injured, [30] losing his leg onboard the ship. [29]
On 28 July, the Houthis released a propaganda video, which was posted later in X, [31] allegedly showing ten crew members being held. [32] Among them are nine Filipinos and a Russian. [29] The video claimed that the rebels rescued the crew, pulling them from the sea, [33] as reportedly detailed by the latter. [32] According to the rebels, eleven crew members were rescued, including the two injured who were treated, and a body was recovered from the ship. [33] The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) later said that a Filipino and a foreign personnel were injured, and these Filipino sailors were moved to rebel-controlled Sana'a. [34]
The DFA and the Omani Foreign Ministry had been mediating in the release of seafarers, which was discussed twice—in a bilateral meeting in July, and in a phone call in November. [35] On 3 December, a day after the announcement by DFA, [35] all 11 captive seafarers—nine Filipinos, one Indian, [36] and one Russian [30] —were freed in Sana'a [17] and were transported to Muscat, Oman, on an Omani Royal Air Force aircraft. [37] AFP reported that their release, done in exchange for the repatriation of 35 Yemenis stranded abroad, was part of an agreement between the governments of Yemen and of Oman which was the result of "pressure" from the former. [38]
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