Houthi missile attack sets Dutch cargo ship ablaze in Gulf of Aden

Houthi missile attack sets Dutch cargo ship ablaze in Gulf of Aden

On Sept. 29, 2025, a missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels set the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht ablaze in the Gulf of Aden, wounding two mariners and forcing the crew to abandon the vessel, according to the AP report. The strike was described as the most serious attack in the Gulf of Aden, some distance from the Red Sea corridor where the Houthis had sunk two vessels in July.

The report said a missile launch seen by some in Yemen apparently struck the ship. Spliethoff, the vessel's owner, said the attack inflicted substantial damage, and a helicopter evacuated all 19 crew members. Two of them were wounded. A European naval force operating in the region, Operation Aspides, later said the Minervagracht was on fire and adrift after the rescue.

The human details were limited but clear. The crew came from the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. One injured sailor was said to be stable, while another was severely wounded and airlifted to Djibouti for medical care. Those facts show that the attack was not only a shipping incident but also a multinational rescue and medical response in a busy conflict zone.

No one had claimed responsibility at the time of the report, but the AP noted that the French military's Maritime Information, Cooperation and Awareness Center identified the Houthis as the attackers. The rebels often wait hours or days before claiming assaults, so the absence of an immediate claim did not rule them out. The U.S. Navy-overseen Joint Maritime Information Center also said the ship had no Israeli affiliations, which is relevant because the Houthis have said their attacks are part of a campaign tied to the war in Gaza.

The attack widened the area of the group's recent operations. AP noted that the last recorded attack on a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden before the Minervagracht came in August 2024, and that the rebels have launched missile and drone attacks on more than 100 ships and on Israel over the past two years. The shipping fallout has been enormous: the Red Sea route carried about $1 trillion in goods a year before the war disrupted it.

The report also reminded readers that the Minervagracht had already been targeted unsuccessfully on Sept. 23. That detail makes the attack look less like an isolated strike and more like part of an extended campaign at sea. The vessel may now be adrift, but the wider impact is already familiar: ships rerouted, sailors injured and a key trade corridor left more dangerous than before.

The attack also shows how far the shipping threat has spread. The Gulf of Aden is not the same theater as the Red Sea itself, yet the Houthis can still reach vessels there, and that widens the area that shipowners and navies have to treat as risky.

The prior Sept. 23 attempt matters because it shows the Minervagracht was already in the rebels' sights before the successful strike. That makes the incident look like part of a campaign rather than a one-off error.

For shipping companies, the wider significance is the uncertainty. A vessel can have no Israeli affiliation and still be targeted, rescue can happen but the ship can remain adrift, and the security picture can change before anyone has time to reroute a fleet.