Turkey will repair the Bangladeshi Navy ship “BNJ Bijoy” that was damaged in the explosion earlier this month at Lebanon’s Beirut Port, Turkish Defense Ministry announced on 27th August.
“BNS BIJOY of the Bangladesh Navy, which was damaged in the Beirut explosion, is being towed to Turkey by TCG İNEBOLU. The necessary repairs to BNS BIJOY will be carried out at the facilities of the Turkish Navy,” the ministry said in a Twitter post.
The officials from UNIFIL and Bangladeshi Navy didn’t comment about the level of damage BNS Bijoy suffered, but she couldn’t continue her mission in UNIFIL. The guided-missile stealth corvette BNS Shongram of the Bangladeshi Navy replaced BNJ Bijoy for the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon) mission last week.
BNS Bijoy will be repaired by the Turkish Naval Shipyard in Aksaz Naval Base in order to ensure her resistance to sea and capabality of cruising to her mother land.
Earlier this month, a huge amount of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse in the port of Beirut exploded and destroyed the entire area. More than 160 people were killed and at least 6,000 injured in the explosion.
BNS Bijoy is a British-made Castle-class guided missile corvette which has been serving for the Bangladesh Navy since 2011. The 81 metered ship carries four C-704 automated anti-ship missiles. Besides it has one H/PJ-26 76 mm main gun and two Oerlikon 20 mm autocannons. It has a flight deck which can accommodate helicopter up to Westland Sea King size.
