![]() According to Lloyd's List, port state control seized Rhosus on 4 February 2014 due to US$100,000 in unpaid bills. ![]() The ship soon ran out of provisions, and the remaining crew were unable to disembark due to immigration restrictions. Grechushkin reportedly went bankrupt, and after the charterers lost interest in the cargo he abandoned Rhosus. The large ship on the right is the French amphibious assault ship Tonnerre, which arrived in the port on 13 August to provide food, construction materials, medical supplies, and personnel. The Port of Beirut eleven days after the disaster. Eight Ukrainians and one or two Russians were aboard, and with the help of the Ukrainian consul, five Ukrainians were repatriated, leaving four crew members to care for the ship. After inspection by port state control, Rhosus was deemed unseaworthy, and was forbidden to set sail. ![]() The heavy machinery was stacked on top of the doors to the cargo space containing the ammonium nitrate, causing the doors to buckle, which damaged the ship. Some sources said it was forced to port due to mechanical issues and possibly engine problems, while other sources claimed the owner did not have sufficient funds to pay tolls for the Suez Canal and attempted to take on a shipment of heavy machinery in Beirut. On 21 November 2013, the ship made port in Beirut. However, reporting by Der Spiegel has found that it was not Grechushkin who owned Rhosus, but rather Cypriot businessman Charalambos Manoli, who maintained a relationship with the bank used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. The shipment had been ordered by an African explosives manufacturing company for mining in Mozambique. Rhosus was owned by a company based in Panama but was regarded by the captain as under the de facto ownership of Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin. On 27 September 2013, the Moldovan- flagged cargo ship MV Rhosus set sail from Batumi, Georgia, to Beira, Mozambique, carrying 2,750 tonnes (3,030 short tons) of ammonium nitrate. The grain elevator was built in the 1960s as part of an expansion plan advanced by Palestinian banker Yousef Beidas. The port included four basins, sixteen quays, twelve warehouses, a large container terminal, and a grain elevator with a total capacity of 120,000 tonnes that served as a strategic reserve of cereals for the country. The Beirut Naval Base is a part of the port. The government-owned Port of Beirut serves as the main maritime entry point into Lebanon and a vital piece of infrastructure for the importation of scarce goods. The morning before the explosion, the head of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which served as the main COVID-19 medical facility in Lebanon, warned that it was approaching full capacity. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic had overwhelmed many of the country's hospitals, several of which were already short of medical supplies and unable to pay staff due to the financial crisis. The economy of Lebanon was in a state of crisis before the explosion, with the government having defaulted on debt, the Lebanese pound plunging, and a poverty rate that had risen past 50%. The explosion occurred behind the grain silos in this view. In July and August 2022, part of the silos collapsed following a weeks-long fire in the remaining grain. The adjacent grain silos were badly damaged. On 10 August 2020, Prime Minister Hassan Diab and the Lebanese cabinet resigned. In its aftermath, protests erupted across Lebanon against the government for their failure to prevent the disaster, joining a larger series of protests which had been taking place across the country since 2019. The Lebanese government declared a two-week state of emergency in response to the disaster. It was powerful enough to affect Earth's atmosphere. It was detected by the United States Geological Survey as a seismic event of magnitude 3.3 and is considered one of the most powerful artificial non-nuclear explosions in history. It was felt in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Israel, as well as parts of Europe, and was heard in Cyprus, more than 240 km (150 mi) away. The blast was so powerful that it physically shook the whole country of Lebanon. The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same warehouse. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |