More than 15,000 sheep drown after shipwreck in Red Sea

The carcasses of more than 15,000 sheep are floating in the waters of a Sudanese Red Sea port after the ship carrying them sank on Sunday, local officials said.

“The Badr 1 vessel sank very early on Sunday while carrying 15,800 sheep (…) All the animals died,” said a senior port official, who requested anonymity.

Another port official confirmed the incident, assuring that the crew had been saved, but not the animals.

A livestock ship sank in an area near harbor entrance, while sailing off Sudan's 🇸🇩 Suakin port, carrying 16,000 sheep

A rescue team was dispatched to search for the ship's crew membershttps://t.co/Y2Q7ldGquP https://t.co /zHtMBFnsBA pic.twitter.com/u8W75qlHmt

— Saad Abedine 🤬😷🤟🏼 (@SaadAbedine) June 11, 2022

The ship, which was heading for Saudi Arabia, sank in the Sudanese port of Suakin, a commercial hub for many African countries, located nearly 800 km northeast of Khartoum.

The reasons for the sinking were not immediately known but, according to him, the ship was "well beyond its maximum load".

According to port authorities, the ship could carry up to 9,000 animals, but modifications had been made to increase this maximum load.

"The ship had already transported 12,000 animals, but this is the first time that there were more than 15,000 animals on board," he said.

Omar Bashir al-Khalifa, president of the Sudanese Chamber of Exporters, said the ship took several hours to sink, stressing that the boat and its cargo "could have been saved".

According to Saleh Selim, head of the livestock department of the Sudanese chamber of exporters, 700 sheep were able to be pulled out of the water, even though they "are in poor condition".

The total value of the cattle transported is around "four million dollars", said Mr. Selim, who called for an investigation to determine the causes of the sinking.

One of the port officials said he feared "an environmental impact after the death by drowning of these thousands of animals" in the Red Sea, as well as a disruption of port activities.

The port of Suakin is located 60 km south of Port Sudan, the main port of the country.

On May 25, its docks had been ravaged by a fire.

An investigation had been opened to determine the causes.

Imports and exports from Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic, as well as oil from South Sudan, pass through Sudan's Red Sea ports.

The country is one of the poorest in the world and in October lost 40% of its revenue when the international community cut its aid in retaliation for the coup d'etat by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane .