Sailors stressed and exhausted after months trapped by Strait of Hormuz blockade
Key takeaways
- Mukimul Himel,BBC News Bangla,Mohammed Zubair Khan,BBC World Serviceand Grace Tsoi,BBC World Service Reuters.
- "It is really strange that everything looks normal outside, but people inside are not calm," says the Pakistani sailor, who doesn't want to use his real name.
- Things may look normal in this part of the Gulf, but they are certainly not.
Why this matters: a developing story that could shape the day's news cycle.
Mukimul Himel,BBC News Bangla,Mohammed Zubair Khan,BBC World Serviceand Grace Tsoi,BBC World Service Reuters. The sea is sometimes so tranquil that Captain Hassan Khan forgets his ship has been stuck in the middle of a war zone for three months.
"It is really strange that everything looks normal outside, but people inside are not calm," says the Pakistani sailor, who doesn't want to use his real name.
Things may look normal in this part of the Gulf, but they are certainly not. Khan and 20,000 other sailors have been trapped in or near the Strait of Hormuz by the US-Israeli war with Iran since late February. What was once one of the world's busiest waterways, used to transport a fifth of the globe's oil and gas, has ground to a halt as missiles fly overhead and mines are laid beneath the waves.