Sudan: Over 15,000 sheep drown in Suakin port
More than 15,000 sheep drowned on Sunday in Sudan’s Red Sea port of Suakin after a livestock ship sunk, officials said. All crew survived.
The vessel was transporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia when it sank, carrying several thousand more animals than it was meant to take.
A senior Sudanese port official told AFP on the grounds of anonymity that “The ship, Badr 1, sank during the early hours of Sunday morning.”
He added that the ship was “carrying 15,800 sheep, which was beyond its load limits”.
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Omar al-Khalifa, the head of the national exporters’ association, said the ship took several hours to sink at the pier, which meant that the boat “could have been rescued”.
The total value of the livestock lost is “around 14 million Saudi riyals, the equivalent of four million dollars,” said Saleh Selim, the head of the association’s livestock division.
Selim said that livestock owners only recovered 700 sheep, “but they were found very ill, and we don’t expect them to live long”. He also called for an investigation into the event.
Environmental impact
Outside of the economic losses of losing the sheep, an official has raised concerns about the environmental impact this could have due to the death of the animals.
According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden region are increasingly being identified as potential climate refuges for coral reefs.
However, there is a significant issue in its resilience due to the stability of the ecosystem and the pressures on marine environments, including “habitat destruction, overexploitation of marine resources, navigation risks and threats of hydrocarbon spills; pollution from urban/industrial/tourism hotspots; illegal disposal of pollutants by transiting vessels; and the impacts of climate change.”
This was also not the first time the Suakin port experienced a mass setback.
Last month, a massive fire broke out in the cargo area, lasting hours and causing heavy damage.
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fire, but it has yet to release its findings.
There were plans to redevelop the port, but a 2017 deal with Turkey to restore its historic buildings and expand the docks was suspended following the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
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