LONDON – Al-Yurae- – The United Kingdom moved in the last moments yesterday to secure an additional amount to complete the process of emptying the fuel tank of the damaged oil-tanker (SAFER) in the Red Sea when it turned out that its tank is about to explode, threatening an unprecedented environmental disaster in the region, the British Foreign Office in a tweet late today said: “It has secured additional amount at a conference hosted today by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands allows the United Nations now to begin the process of securing the load of oil on the tank in the floating ship Safer to avoid an environmental disaster in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen that will exacerbate the already difficult humanitarian situation”
تأمين مبلغ إضافي في مؤتمر افتراضي استضافته اليوم #المملكة_المتحدة🇬🇧 و #هولندا🇳🇱 يتيح للأمم المتحدة الآن بدء عملية تأمين حمولة النفط على الخزان العائم #صافر لتفادي كارثة بيئية في #البحر_الأحمر قبالة سواحل #اليمن🇾🇪، تسبب تفاقم الوضع الإنساني الصعب أصلا. https://t.co/RRSUOFixx5
— 🇬🇧وزارة الخارجية والتنمية البريطانية (@FCDOArabic) May 4, 2023
But the United Nations, in a statement late today, apologized for not being able to raise all the required funds, and Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, said it was “urgent to fill this (funding) gap in order to successfully complete the operation.”
“While appreciating the contributions we have received so far, the need for funding is urgent in order to accomplish the mission we have begun.”
Thursday’s conference raised $5.6 million from new donors, according to the United Nations, which estimates the total cost of the operation at $148 million.
The United Nations was seeking to raise $29 million, the remaining portion of the amount needed to start offloading 1.1 million barrels of oil from a rickety ship anchored off the coast of Yemen and avert an environmental disaster.
U.N. officials have warned for years that Yemen’s Red Sea and coast are at risk because oil could spill from the Safer tanker up to four times as much as in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.
The U.N. plan to offload oil needs $129 million, including the purchase of a large tanker whose price has risen due to the war in Ukraine. The international organization has raised about $100 million from governments, private donors and ordinary people.
The United Nations said earlier it hoped to raise the remaining $29 million at a fundraising event hosted by Britain and the Netherlands Thursday.
The United Nations bought the tanker Nautica in March and sailed from China in early April.
It said the cost of the operation could not be paid from the sale of oil because it was not yet clear who owned it.
The war suspended maintenance operations at Safer in 2015. The United Nations has warned that the integrity of the tanker’s hull is deteriorating significantly and that it is at risk of exploding at any moment.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Iran-aligned Houthi movement ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in late 2014. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 with the aim of restoring the government.
Peace initiatives have seen increasing momentum since the Riyadh-Tehran deal in March to restore diplomatic ties severed since 2016.
A Saudi delegation flew to Sanaa in April to seek a permanent ceasefire. Houthi authorities said further talks would take place after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, is holding meetings in Yemen and the region this week.
*Updated article to correct the amount raised from the conference
