EU’s Red Sea mission successfully repels attacks, but lacks ships

The EU’s operation in the Red Sea to protect commercial ships from attacks by Houthi rebels is showing results but remains stuck in a small area of operation due to a lack of ships and other assets, officials said on Monday (8 April).

“In less than two months since the operation was launched, it has escorted 68 vessels and repelled 11 attacks,” EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Monday, speaking alongside the operation commander, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis.

EUNAVFOR Aspides was launched in February to deter and repel attacks from Yemen-based Houthi rebels on commercial ships by accompanying the latter through the Red Sea.

The ships are mostly focused only on the “high-risk area” that is the Bab al-Mandab Strait, rather than being involved in the full area of operation, which would also comprise the Strait of Hormuz, as well as international waters in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, and the Persian Gulf.

To date, according to Borrell, four EU member states – France, Germany, Greece, and Italy – have deployed four frigates while 19 EU countries are contributing personnel to operations and force headquarters.

“If we increase [capabilities], we might be able in the near future to deploy to the rest of the area of operation,” Gryparis said, leaving the door open to future pledges of more assets.

Their comments come after Houthi rebel forces said on Sunday (7 April) they had launched attacks with drones and rockets on British, American, and Israeli ships in the strait.

“Taking into account the number of assets in place, the size of the operation, and also the order to provide immediate effect, the priority was to focus on the high-risk areas, where the majority of the unlawful attacks took place,” Gryparis said. The full area of operation is twice the size of the land of the 27 EU countries.

Gryparis also said that a simple transit of the whole area of operation might take “about ten days” and “to cross the high-risk area takes two days”, while Borrell added:

“We have to increase our capacity.”

The operation currently only counts “four ships and occasional cooperation,” he said, adding that the Europeans want to “increase the logistic support on land, and medical capacities just in case”. 

Gryparis said it was still “very early” to say “if the operation has an impact on the Houthis attacks. In absolute numbers, we see a noticeable reduction but you have to bear in mind that they have the capabilities to choose the time and place, we stay vigilant”.

According to him, “all protected vessels have so far been successfully safeguarded through attacks and all ships that requested protection have been escorted”.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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