CAIRO: The head of the Suez Canal Authority on Thursday said that losses and damages resulting from the grounding of the Ever Given container ship could run to more than $1 billion.
Osama Rabie told media that investigations into the incident, which resulted in the vital trade waterway being blocked to shipping for nearly a week, had begun on Wednesday.
The ship’s black box recorder would reveal details of how the giant vessel – successfully refloated on Monday – ended up jammed sideways across the canal, he added.
Authorities said the backlog of hundreds of ships was clearing smoothly and that the Ever Given was currently undergoing checks while moored away from the main Suez navigation channel.
Rabie pointed out that the Ever Given would be allowed to continue its voyage when compensation had been agreed, but he warned that the vessel would be held if a settlement could not be reached. “The ship carries goods worth $3.5 billion. There was cooperation from the company that owns the ship during the crisis,” he said.
He noted that the probe into the international shipping crisis was being conducted by a team that included marine, legal, loss assessment, and engineering experts while predicting that Egyptian compensation claims could be in excess of $1 billion.
The blockage held up billions of dollars in global trade each day the canal was closed. On Monday, 1,134 ships passed through the Suez and another 81 on Tuesday, with the largest container vessels given priority passage.
According to Rabie, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had directed that incentives be granted in the form of a 5 percent to 15 percent reduction for ships affected by the incident.
“President El-Sisi spoke to me every day to follow up the latest developments in the grounded ship issue. At dawn on Monday, the president announced the movement of the ship,” he added.
The 800 workers involved in the tricky operation to refloat the Ever Given are to receive bonuses and El-Sisi also pledged to organize a celebration ceremony for them.
Global credit rating agency DBRS Morningstar said that total losses covered by insurance would not be overly excessive due to the relatively short period the ship was stuck in the canal, adding that most insurance contracts set a maximum amount of coverage.
Egypt’s claims bill for Ever Given ship’s Suez blockage may hit $1bn: Canal authorities
https://arab.news/v2ja9
Egypt’s claims bill for Ever Given ship’s Suez blockage may hit $1bn: Canal authorities
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
