Egyptian President announces successful Suez Canal unblocking operation

The operation to unblock the Suez Canal is successful ‘despite the enormous technical complexity’ presented by the process, announced on March 29 by Egyptian President al-Sisi.

Blocked for six days by the container ship Ever Given, the Suez Canal was released on March 29, announced by the Egyptian President on his Twitter account.

“Today, the Egyptians have succeeded in ending the Suez Canal shipwreck crisis despite the enormous technical complexity” which accompanied this process, he said.

“The whole world is assured of the routing of its goods by this navigation artery,” concludes the Head of State.

His statement came hours after the Canal Authority (SCA) announced the partial refloating of the giant container ship Ever Given.

Resuming navigation

Navigation will be fully restored in three and a half days, said Ossama Rabie, President of the SCA, quoted by Sada El Balad, Egyptian television channel.

“We have managed to overcome the crisis without appealing to the extreme scenario of ship lightening. After the container ship is completely transferred [to the lakes located in the north of the canal to undergo a technical examination], navigation will be restored,” he said.

“We will continue to work 24/7 to get all the queuing ships through and to end this traffic jam,” Rabie added.

Incident

Measuring 400 meters in length and having a displacement of 224,000 tons, the container ship blocked navigation in the southern part of the single lane of the canal, involving a traffic jam of at least 369 ships, according to figures communicated by the President of the Suez Canal Authority (ACS), Ossama Rabie.

A dust storm caused the incident and potential errors, human or technical, said the institution.