Iran’s Yemen-Bound Aid Ship Enters Indian Ocean
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iranian cargo ship Nejat (Rescue) carrying 2500 tons of humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen left the Sea of Oman behind and entered the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.
According to Tasnim dispatches, Nejat is now navigating through the Ocean, heading to the Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to deliver the aid cargo to Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeida.
The cargo ship, which belongs to Iran's Valfajr Shipping Company, left Iran for Hodeida on Monday evening.
If the weather remains as calm as it was in the past two days and there is no storm, the ship will dock at Hodeida port on May 20 to deliver Iran’s humanitarian aid to the war-hit people of Yemen, the ship's captain Masoud Qazi Mir-Saeed told the Tasnim News Agency's reporter on Wednesday.
It has been loaded with 700 tons of flour, 1200 tons of rice, 400 tons of canned food, 50 tons of medication and health products, and 50 tons of mineral water.
The ship's journey comes after Yemen agreed to a five-day truce proposed by Saudi Arabia.
The ceasefire, which is to allow humanitarian aid in, came into effect at 11 pm (2000 GMT) on Tuesday.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly air strikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Some seven weeks of deadly aerial attacks on Yemen have killed over 3,500 people and left some 6,200 others injured.