Mukalla Port – the Maritime terror gate

Country: Yemen;
Governorate: Hadramaut;
Website: www.portofmukalla.com;
Phone: 009675350741; 009675350740; 009675305560;
Fax: 009675303508;
E-mail: info@portofmukalla.com;
Founded in: 1035 (as a fishing settlement);

History:
Mukalla is a seaport and the capital city of Yemen’s Hadhramaut governorate. The city is located in the southern part of Arabia on the Gulf of Aden, on the shores of the Arabian Sea.

Terrorist Battle for Profit – How it all started:
On 2 April 2015, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) stormed the central prison, freeing hundreds of prisoners including two senior AQAP commanders. They attacked the central bank and seized 17 billion Yemeni riyals and 1 million U.S. dollars before taking control of the presidential palace in the city. It is reported the entire city is under their control and they plan to establish an Islamic emirate in the wider Hadramaut region. Also, on 15 May 2016, a suicide attack was carried out in the city by ISIL. This attack targeted a police base, killing at least 25 police recruits and wounding at least 54 others.

Terrorists Profit from Mukalla Port:
In April 2016, Yemeni government officials and local traders estimated that AQAP, has extorted $1.4 million from the national oil company and earned up to $2 million every day in taxes on goods and fuel coming into the port.

Report:
Regarding the civil war in Yemen, recent press reports described Mukalla port, as a port controlled by the AQAP. We monitored the arrivals to this port for two weeks in order to define the nature of the goods arriving there and also which are the companies- that probably assists AQAP in this war. We came across these findings:

Cargo:

Cargo analysis:
Nature of the goods:
-5 vessels of general cargoes/ container;
-2 vessels of bulk (one of them – the Best Wave – conduct 2 voyages);
-2 vessels of cement – (one of them – Raysut 1 – conduct 2 voyages);
-1 vessel of ro-ro cargo (vehicles) – two voyages;

Companies:

Oil analysis:
Oil:

Oil analysis:
-One tanker (ATTAIR) enter to Mukalla port fully loaded in the past two weeks;
-The other tanker (GREATA K) entered Mukalla port by the end of February continued to Aden port and continued to Djibouti (current position) empty;

Companies:
-The owner of the ATTAIR is Gulf Energy LTD (UAE) the operator is Emirate Shipping (UAE).
-The only vessel that called GRETA K and using the same MMSI has a different IMO – 9380568.

The owner is San Giorgio del Porto SpA (Italy) which own only that ship. The operator is K-Ships Srl (Italy) who operate only two ships one of them is that ship. Although, some recent reports told that ships bring humanitarian aid (medical equipment, food, toiletry items, sanitary products, etc.) to this port, we found that- it is all a lie!

Commodities have been shipped to Mukalla port from various origins, and some of them are very suspicious. Because, we spotted delivering of: vehicles, petrol, cement, etc. to this port.

So saying that humanitarian aid is arriving at this port, got us thinking:

“Does humanitarian aid includes petrol, cement and vehicles?”

“Why does humanitarian aid has to be shipped to an AQAP controlled port?”

“Why does some of the vessels disguise and conceal their movements and their identity?”

“Does Somalia, Djibouti, Turkey and Lebanon send humanitarian aid or weapons to Yemen? Or they send humanitarian aid (medical equipment, food, vehicles, etc.) to terrorists?”

What the world expects to happen, when it allows terrorists to earn millions?!