JAKARTA - Tens of thousands of sheep were not rescued when a ship carrying cattle sank in the port, causing losses of up to Rp 54 billion.
Luckily, the entire crew of the ship was rescued in the incident that occurred at the Red Sea Port of Suakin, Sudan on Sunday local time.
Initially, the sinking transport ship was said to be exporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia.
"The ship Badr 1, sank in the early hours of Sunday morning. It was carrying 15,800 sheep," said a senior Sudanese port official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another official, who said all crew members were rescued, voiced concern over the economic and environmental impact of the crash.
"The sinking ship will affect port operations. It will most likely also have an impact on the environment because many of the animals carried by the ship died," he said.
Meanwhile, Omar al-Khalifa, head of the national exporters' association, said the ship took several hours to sink in the dock, a window indicating it could be salvaged.
The total value of the cattle lost is around 14 million Saudi riyals ($5,659,869,768), said Saleh Selim, head of the association's livestock division, who called for an investigation into the incident.
He said livestock owners only found about 700 sheep, "but they were found to be very sick and we don't expect them to live long." He also confirmed that the sheep were loaded onto ships in the port of Suakin.
Previously, the port had already undergone an investigation to determine the cause of last month's massive fire in the cargo area, which lasted for hours and caused heavy damage.
The historic port city of Suakin is no longer Sudan's main foreign trade center, a role which has been taken up by Port Sudan, which lies 60km away along the Red Sea coast.
There were moves to rebuild the Suakin port, but a 2017 deal with Turkey to restore historic buildings and expand the wharf was shelved, following the ouster of longtime president Omar al-Bashir.
Sudan remains gripped by a chronic economic crisis, which deepened after last year's military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The military takeover sparked punitive measures, including aid cuts by western governments, demanding the restoration of the transitional government installed after Bashir was ousted.
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