ADEN-Al-Yurae-( Reuters) – Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced 10 million dollars to support a UN plan to address the dangers of the (Safer) oil tanker off the coast of The Hodeidah province in western Yemen.
The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action said in a statement that Saudi Arabia has provided $10 million to contribute to the threat from the oil tanker Safir, which is anchored on the Red Sea coast north of Hodeidah.
The statement said that the Kingdom has repeatedly warned that if oil leaks from the tanker Safer, which contains more than one million barrels and has not been maintained since 2015, the world will witness the largest environmental disaster threatening life underwater, fisheries and biodiversity.
The UN office in Yemen had earlier confirmed that shareholders and donors had pledged $40 million to implement the UN emergency plan and avoid a possible oil spill from the broken tanker.
The total cost of implementing the United Nations plan to treat the Safer Reservoir is about $144 million in two phases, of which $80 million is urgently for the implementation of the emergency operation during the summer, to eliminate the immediate threat and transport 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Safer to a safe temporary vessel.
The ship has not been maintained since 2015 due to the war, which has severely eroded its structure and deteriorated its condition, foreshadowing the largest environmental and maritime disaster in the Red Sea region, which the United Nations says will need $20 billion to clean up if it occurs.
