About 9 900 sheep drowned when the livestock carrier they were on capsized and sank while it was berthed at Sudan’s Port of Suakin on the Red Sea yesterday morning.
The slow listing of the ship to starboard enabled all the crew to disembark in haste, along with 700 sheep.
Unfortunately, when the Al Badri 1 fell on to its side and went under, it took most of its cargo along with it.
In the aftermath of yesterday’s tragedy, concerns are that the massive loss of livestock at sea could trigger an environmental disaster as the carcasses start to decompose.
The vessel could also leak oil and, because it sank so close to the pier, operations are now impeded at a port that once served as Sudan’s principal port, a position that has been lost to Port Sudan.
Questions are also being raised about the vessel itself after it emerged that it was built in 1973 as a roll-on roll-off (roro) carrying cars, and hadn’t been scrapped after reaching its ordinary lifespan limit of 30 years.
Instead, as is often the case with decommissioned roros, it was converted into a livestock carrier, with information filtering through indicating that, in addition to its main decks, four extra decks had been added for livestock carriage.
It now stands to reason that the Al Badri 1 started capsizing probably because it carried a top-heavy load of 16 000 sheep.
Moreover, it appears that for 10 years, the vessel hadn’t undergone the necessary Port State Control inspections.
