A yacht with 14 Indian sailors on board was hit near Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea on Thursday, 22 October 2026. Zuqar is a Yemeni island north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. On Friday, 23 October, the Embassy of India in Yemen said all 14 sailors are safe.
"Reports suggest that all 14 Indian nationals are safe and located around Hodeidah in Yemen," the embassy wrote on X. Hodeidah is a port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast. It is controlled by the Houthis, an armed group that fights the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia. The embassy said it will keep working for the sailors' well-being.
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What is known and what is not
The Houthis' military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, made the first claim on 22 October. He said Saudi forces attacked an Indian yacht near Zuqar Island with 14 Indians on board. He said Houthi forces were rescuing them. The Houthi news agency SABA published the statement.
Saudi Arabia has not answered this claim, news reports say. No independent source has confirmed who hit the yacht or how badly it was damaged. The name of the yacht has not been made public.
The Indian embassy also said the information is not complete. On the night of 22 October it wrote that exact details were not available "given the prevailing conflict situation". It said it had contacted different parties to find out the facts. It promised an update when reliable information is available.
India closed its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana'a in 2015. Since then, the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia has handled Yemen matters, Firstpost reported.
Fighting in the Red Sea area
The Houthis and Saudi Arabia attack each other almost every day, Firstpost reported. ThePrint reported that the Houthis took the port of Mocha, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, on 10 September 2026. On 21 October, an Indian national was killed in an attack on the airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, India's foreign ministry said.
Yemen, the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden stay warlike areas on the IBF list until 23 November 2026. The IBF (International Bargaining Forum) is where seafarers' unions and shipowners agree on pay and conditions. In a warlike area, seafarers on IBF agreements get extra rights, such as a bonus and the right to refuse to sail. Read more: the latest IBF list of risk areas.
What it means for crews
If your ship sails in the southern Red Sea or near Bab el-Mandeb, follow your company's security plan and the latest naval guidance.
Small boats and yachts are at risk too, not only large merchant ships. Keep a good lookout day and night.
Report any attack, suspicious approach or incident to UKMTO, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre. It shares warnings with other ships in the region.
If you are on an IBF agreement, ask your company or union about your rights in a warlike area before you enter it. The list is on the IMEC website.
Families of Indian seafarers who are worried about a relative in the region can contact the Indian embassy through its official X account @IndiaInYemen.
If you need to talk, free and confidential help is available at ISWAN SeafarerHelp, 24 hours a day.
We will update this report when there is official information about the yacht and the sailors.
Cover photo: A US Navy sailor stands watch at a machine gun on the destroyer USS Jason Dunham in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, between Djibouti and Yemen, in October 2018. Illustrative photo, not connected to the yacht in the story. Photo: U.S. Navy/U.S. Department of Defense via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (cropped).
Sources: Embassy of India in Yemen on X: all 14 Indian nationals safe near Hodeidah (23 Oct 2026), Embassy of India in Yemen on X: efforts to find details of the incident (22 Oct 2026), Embassy of India in Yemen on X: first statement on the yacht incident (22 Oct 2026), SABA (Houthi-run news agency): Houthi spokesperson's statement on the yacht near Zuqar Island (22 Oct 2026), ThePrint: 14 Indian sailors safe, located around Hodeidah (23 Oct 2026), Firstpost: All 14 Indians aboard yacht hit off Yemen coast are safe (23 Oct 2026), The Straits Times: All 14 Indians in yacht incident off Yemen coast reported safe (23 Oct 2026), IMEC: IBF risk areas.
