This is the moment a young man apparently calling himself ‘a Pirate of the Red Sea’ appear to pose in front of a cargo vessel which was captured by Houthi rebels in November last year.
A young man, who has been compared online to Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet, posted the videos on various social media platforms, raising suspicions that he may be linked to the Houthi movement, as rebels in Yemen continue to be bombarded with missiles by the US and the UK this week.
The man has been gaining thousands of views on video-sharing platforms TikTok and Snapchat over the past few hours after he published several videos of himself apparently in the Red Sea with a captured vessel.
In some of his videos, he appears to be on a small boat flying the flag of Yemen. The short clips are filmed at sea, and in a few of them the cargo vessel Galaxy Leader can be spotted. In others, he appears to be aboard the ship. Express.co.uk has not been able to independently verify the videos.
The Galaxy Leader was seized by a group of Houthi rebels in mid-November, a few days after they started launching a campaign terrorising commercial ships crossing the Red Sea. The ship is believed to still be in the hands of the Houthis. In the latest update from early-December, the crew onboard had been allowed ‘modest contact with their families’ as countries pushed for their release.
According to Vessel Finder, the Galaxy Leader was last located 11 hours ago sitting stationary still in the Red Sea.
As of January 16, the young man was sharing his clips on Snapchat via the account “@rashd-h” and on TikTok on the account “@rro1o”.
On his TikTok profile, he claims his main account, “@ra_shd”, has “been blocked”, presumably by the social media platform.
In the caption of his TikTok videos, the man doesn’t openly call himself a member of the Yemeni rebel group, but one of the clips is captioned as “Pirates of the Red Sea #Yemen #Palestine”.
The account has been noticed by X user “@comrademika”. Sharing one of the man’s videos, the user wrote: “Yemeni pirates posting casual TikTok’s while the entire western imperial core are having a meltdown about their blockade on their ships is the funniest s*** of 2024, surely.”
The man seemingly took notice of the attention he got from the English-speaking social media account and shared a new video on Tuesday morning showing the posts about him.
The Houthi rebels have thrown into chaos one of the most important trade routes in the world – the Red Sea – connecting Asia to Europe. Through the Red Sea pass around 12 percent of the global shipping carrying billions worth of cargo.
Fears of attacks launched by the Houthis have led some shipping companies to travel instead by South Africa, making their journeys safer but longer and more expensive.
The Houthis, a group backed militarily and economically by Iran, have claimed to be targeting Israeli-linked cargo in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing war between Tel Aviv and Hamas.
Last week, in response not just to the shipping chaos but also to US ships being attacked, London and Washington launched a series of airstrikes at Houthi targets in Yemen. The group has vowed revenge.
