Old video of cargo ship fire falsely linked to December attacks
- Published on February 9, 2024 at 04:52
- 4 min read
- By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong
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"Footage of the Ruen cargo ship being hit by Huthi forces off the coast of Yemen in the Arabian Sea," reads a post shared on Chinese social media site Weibo on December 15, 2023.
The post appears to conflate two separate attacks. On December 14, a cargo ship called The Ruen was hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Yemen in the Arabian Sea. The same day, Huthi rebels fired a missile at the Maersk Gibraltar vessel en route to Saudi Arabia.
The video, which has more than 89,000 views, shows smoke billowing from a cargo ship.
"There were 18 crew members on board," the post says, apparently referring to the besieged Ruen. The pirates, who released one injured sailor into the care of the Indian navy, took the ship and its remaining 17 crew members to Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland.
The post adds that Huthi rebels said they targeted the ship -- apparently referring to the Maersk Gibraltar -- as it was heading to Israel.
Since shortly after the war in Gaza broke out in October, the Iran-backed Huthis have launched a spate of missile and drone attacks on passing commercial ships in the Red Sea which they say are linked to Israel.
The rebels say the attacks, which have disrupted global trade, are in solidarity with Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The footage was also shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in similar posts here and here that falsely claimed it showed a recent attack on shipping.
Maersk fire
A reverse image search and keyword search on YouTube found the footage posted in a report by Indian television channel Times Now on March 8, 2018 (archived link).
According to the report, titled "Maersk Cargo Ship Catches Fire", four crew members were missing after a blaze broke out on the vessel off India's western coast two days earlier.
The YouTube video features various shots of the burning ship, including the clip shared in false social media posts from the 3:44 timestamp (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of the video shared in false social media posts (left) and in Times Now's YouTube video from March 2018 (right):
The Indian Coast Guard also posted footage on X on March 9, 2018 showing efforts to extinguish the blaze on Maersk's Honam ship (archived link).
A Maersk statement published years after the fire confirmed that five crew members were killed in the tragedy on March 6, 2018 (archived link).
According to a report by the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB), an investigation team "was not able to conclusively determine the cause" of the blaze as most evidence was destroyed by the flames (archived link).
The video circulating in false social media posts (below-left) is similar to a photo featured in the TSIB's report on the Honam fire (below-right):
In response to social media posts sharing misinformation about the Maersk Gibraltar incident in December 2023, the shipping company published a statement clarifying that its vessel was not hit, adding that some online users were sharing videos and photos unrelated to the event (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked a spate of misinformation on Huthi attacks in the Red Sea.
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