Cairo Sep 1, : A huge oil tanker that was stranded in Egypt’s Suez Canal was refloated, authorities announced on Thursday. “The vessel that was coming from Portugal was sunk in the Suez Canal at about 7 p.m.on Wednesday, and tugboats released it from its navigational path five hours later.” Xinhua news agency quoted George Safwat, spokesperson of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) as saying.
He said that the boat, Affinity V, had been blocking the southern part of the canal for a short time but he said that “traffic is now back to normal”.
The incident occurred in the exact single-lane section of the canal in which the Ever Given, a giant cargo ship, sank for six days in March 2021, disrupting the global trade system.
Since the release of the Ever Given, the SCA has been expanding and enlarging the channel of the canal and is expected to be finished in 2023.
Connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal was officially opened for international navigation in 1869.It was an important link for sea-based trade because it permits ships to move between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa.
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