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French Ship Loses 44 Containers Off South Africa, Search Underway

11:50, 18 July 2024

Muhammad Nooh Osman

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Last week, a severe storm near the Cape of Good Hope significantly disrupted shipping operations. This route has experienced increased traffic in recent months as vessels seek to avoid the Red Sea, where they face the threat of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who target ships with connections to or bound for Israel.

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A search is underway off the coast of South Africa for the containers lost at sea after a stack of containers collapsed in heavy seas near Durban on July 9 on the Benjamin Franklin, a French-owned container ship.

According to the French media, the ship, owned by French logistics firm CMA CGM, encountered rough weather in the Indian Ocean while en route from Asia to Le Havre, France.

"All containers lost at sea contained harmless goods and do not contain any dangerous cargo," CMA CGM said.

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While 30 other containers were damaged, the 44 lost containers are now posing a threat to shipping in the area. Aerial surveys are underway to locate the containers, and other vessels in the vicinity have been alerted to keep an eye out.

"We've received information from passing ships. Some of them spotted containers in the area, but our aerial survey has not found any containers yet," Tebogo Ramatji, spokesperson of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), told French media.

Despite the ongoing search, maritime activity near South Africa remains high, with over 400 ships currently traveling from Durban to the Cape of Good Hope, Sputnik found out after studying data from the Marinetraffic ship tracking service.