SANA’A — An oil leak this week contaminated coastal areas near Ras Al-Ara, near the Bab Al-Mandab strait on the Red Sea.

According to Murad Al-Halimi, the deputy director of the General Authority of Maritime Affairs, the oil overflowed from a Somali ship’s fuel tank as it traveled from Dubai to Somalia. A Somali businessman, he said, owns the ship.

Al-Halimi said the oil spill occurred following the ship’s run-in with Somali pirates nine miles off Yemen’s coast, near Ras Al-Ara and close to Bab Al-Mandab.

He said international forces rescued the ship after pirates attacked its fuel tank.

Yemeni Coast Guard forces in the Red Sea received a notice Friday from the Regional Center for Piracy Information Exchange, established to combat privacy and led by the Ministry of  Transportation, that Ras Al-Ara district has been exposed to environmental contamination.

Yemeni Coast Guard forces discovered dead fish in Al-Hodeida from the oil spill.

After informing the General Authority of Maritime Affairs about the dead fish, a committee to check the fish for contamination was established. The committee found that the fish flocked to the port basin and, unable to escape the ship rotations, they died.

An investigation of the oil spill is in progress.