The UN announced on Friday August 11 that it had completed the transfer of more than a million barrels of oil contained in an old abandoned ship off the coast of Yemen, as part of an operation aimed at avoiding a gigantic oil spill in the Red Sea. . The 47-year-old FSO Safer, long referred to as a “ticking time bomb”, had not been sustained in eight years of war between Houthi rebels, close to Iran, and the Saudi-backed government. It threatened to explode at any time off Hodeïda (West).
“Secretary General [Antonio Guterres] welcomes the transfer of oil from FSO Safer to the replacement vessel which was completed safely today, averting what could have been a monumental environmental and humanitarian disaster,” said the UN in a press release.
The UN had warned, however, that even rid of its oil cargo, the ship, which is still at risk of breaking, “will pose a threat (…) to the environment” due to oil residues. The next stage of the rescue will be to clean the tanks of the Safer and prepare it for towing and demolition, which should take “between two and three weeks”, program manager Achim Steiner told Agence France-Presse. United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
An oil spill would have wreaked havoc on wildlife, fishing villages and vital ports in Yemen, a country already plunged into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises due to war. Such a disaster could also have disrupted international maritime traffic between the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal, which leads to the Mediterranean.
