Ships turning off tracking systems to avoid Red Sea attacks: report

 Some ships traveling through the Red Sea are now turning off their tracking systems to avoid being attacked by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, a report says. 

The evasive maneuvers come as shippers, including Hapag Lloyd, MSC, Maersk, as well as BP and the oil tanker group Frontline, have announced that they will be rerouting their vessels from the area and sending them around South Africa instead. 

The news agency, citing data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), reports that four MSC container ships in the Red Sea have had their transponders shut off since Sunday. The company on Saturday announced its intentions to avoid the area. 

Other ships are trying to obscure their whereabouts by pinging their locations as being somewhere else when approaching the Yemen coastline, Ioannis Papadimitriou, a senior freight analyst at Vortexa – a ship tracking company – told Reuters.

Some ships reportedly have armed guards on board. At least 11 cargo vessels that passed through the Suez Canal are currently anchored in the Red Sea between Sudan and Saudi Arabia, Reuters also reported, citing LSEG data.