A vessel suspected by the Namibian authorities to be carrying military cargo intended for Israeli use in the ongoing war in Gaza has been blocked from docking in the southern African country.<\/p>\n
Namibian Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab told state media the ship was stopped because it had \u201cexplosive material destined for Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n
The MV Kathrin, which set off from Vietnam, had requested permission to dock in the port of Walvis Bay \u2013 before sailing north, on a suspected route towards the Mediterranean via the Strait of Gibraltar.<\/p>\n
Rights groups had warned that Namibia could have been implicated in potential human rights violations had it allowed the vessel to dock.<\/p>\n
It is not known why the ship wanted to dock, but vessels on long journeys tend to stop for supplies, respite or to offload or take on cargo.<\/p>\n
Last December, Namibia\u2019s neighbour and ally South Africa launched an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel rejects the allegation of genocide as \u201cbaseless\u201d.<\/p>\n
The conflict began after Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military then launched a campaign to destroy Hamas and more than 40,430 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory\u2019s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n
Walvis Bay is Namibia\u2019s largest commercial port, receiving nearly 900 vessels and handling about eight million tonnes of cargo per year, according to the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport).<\/p>\n
The MV Kathrin, which was set to dock at Walvis Bay on Monday from Vietnam, was stopped in accordance with Namibia\u2019s support for the Palestinian people and the country\u2019s call for an end to the violence in Gaza, Ms Dausab told the state-run New Era news website.<\/p>\n
Citing a police investigation, Ms Dausab said the vessel was \u201cindeed carrying explosive material destined for Israel, and was therefore prohibited from entering Namibian waters\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNamibia complies with our obligation not to support or be complicit in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, as well as its unlawful occupation of Palestine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Namibian human rights organisation the Economic and Social Justice Trust (ESJT) welcomed the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased that our government has decided to respect international law and decided not to be complicit to genocide,\u201d ESJT\u2019s Herbert Jauch told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Namport has not responded to the BBC for comment about the MV Kathrin. Before Ms Dausab\u2019s statement it said it had not received pre-clearance documentation for the ship.<\/p>\n
The agency however pledged to ensure \u201ceffective safety and security of our territorial waters and ports\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also said it supported Namibia\u2019s \u201cstanding and position on international relations and protocols\u201d.<\/p>\n
Namport said it had recently allowed another vessel carrying \u201cdangerous cargo\u201d to pass through Namibian waters, but not to dock.<\/p>\n
The post Namibia blocks ship over Israel war-crime concerns<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A vessel suspected by the Namibian authorities to be carrying military cargo intended for Israeli use in the ongoing war in Gaza has been blocked from docking in the southern African country. Namibian Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab told state media the ship was stopped because it had \u201cexplosive material destined for Israel\u201d. The MV Kathrin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}