Two German naval ships are avoiding the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked passing maritime traffic, and are instead sailing around Africa, the defense ministry said Wednesday.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had ordered the longer route for the frigate and supply ship on their way back from an Indo-Pacific deployment, ministry spokesman Colonel Mitko Mueller told a press conference.
“The threat level is quite high” in the Red Sea, Mueller told a Berlin press briefing, citing the “very complex attacks” carried out there in recent months involving tactical ballistic missiles, drones, and other weapons.
He said that, unlike other German naval vessels, the two ships are not “specifically designed to carry out air defence operations” to protect themselves as well as fleets of nearby vessels.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had during an India trip last week visited the two ships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and supply ship Frankfurt am Main, in the southwestern state of Goa.
The frigate will next head into the Mediterranean to join a mission for UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, while the supply ship will sail back to Germany, Mueller said.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war in what they say is a campaign in solidarity with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israeli forces and their allies have repeatedly struck Houthi targets in the conflict raging since Hamas launched last year’s October 7 attack against Israel, setting off the wider Middle East turmoil.
Most major shipping companies are avoiding the Red Sea route towards Egypt’s Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, forcing them to instead make the longer and more costly journey around Africa.