Yemen is carrying out a maritime study of the southern Red Sea to draw up new shipping lanes, Transport Minister Said Yafhi told the official Saba news agency on Thursday, November 1.
He said Yemen, Djibouti and Eritrea "hope that the study will help to reduce the number of accidents" in the narrow Bab Al Mandeb strait linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The current shipping lanes were drawn up by the British, who controlled the southern Yemeni port of Aden until 1967, and date back to 1880. Yemen has invested heavily in Aden to regenerate the port and opened a free trade zone there. — (AFP, Sanaa)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
