All 14 Indians on yacht attacked off Yemen are safe near Hodeidah, embassy says

All 14 Indian nationals on board a yacht that came under attack off Yemen’s Red Sea coast are safe, India’s embassy in Yemen said on Friday.

“Reports suggest that all 14 Indian nationals are safe and located around Hodeidah in Yemen,” the embassy said in a post on X, adding that it was still seeking more details. A day earlier it had said it was ascertaining what had happened and would help ensure their safety and well-being.

The incident came to light on Thursday when Yahya Saree, the military spokesman of Yemen’s Houthi movement, said “the Saudi enemy is targeting an Indian yacht near Zuqar Island” carrying 14 people of Indian nationality, and that Houthi forces were rescuing them. Zuqar lies in the southern Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Saree called the attack a threat to international navigation. Saudi authorities have not responded to the claim, and the yacht’s name and the reason the Indians were on board have not been made public.

Hodeidah, where the group is now, is the main Red Sea port held by the Houthis, who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

The scare comes as Indians are caught up in the widening war across the Gulf. On Thursday the Ministry of External Affairs condemned continued attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, including the strike on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam that killed two people, one of them an Indian. India is the world’s third-largest supplier of seafarers, and more than a dozen Indian sailors have been killed in the region since the conflict began in February.