Watch: UN coordinator calls public to help in "FSO Safer" emergency operation funding

Watch: UN coordinator calls public to help in “FSO Safer” emergency operation funding

The UN Resident&Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen @DavidGressly urges the world to provide the last $20million needed to start an emergency operation to prevent an oil spill from the #FSOSafer. Delays push the work further into a dangerous weather period. https://t.co/hNqoGeCdui pic.twitter.com/4QRvZMrNl6

— UN Yemen (@UNinYE) June 26, 2022

Days before emergency operations are to take place to secure a decaying oil tanker threat, a UN Humanitarian Coordinator urged the public to help with funding to prevent a catastrophic oil spill in the Red Sea.

According to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, the public is called to help “cross the finish line” to get the required funds in place for the first part of the operation to take place.

During June, a social media campaign launched by the United Nations aims to bring the world closer to prevent FSO Safer, anchored off Yemen, from causing an oil spill that could spell disaster for the region and beyond.

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The goal is to raise funds to start the $80 million emergency operation to transfer oil from the FSO Safer to a temporary vessel.

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The FSO Safer is moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast and contains more than a million barrels of oil. The tanker is beyond repair, and the fear is that it could soon break apart or explode. At 376 metres long, it is among the largest tankers in the world, and holds roughly four times the crude oil that was spilled during the Exxon Valdez disaster, off Alaska, in 1989.

The Safer has been anchored just a few miles off the Yemen coast for more than 30 years, but the war between the pro-Government coalition and Houthi rebels saw offloading from the vessel, as well as maintenance, grind to a halt in 2015.

The transfer operation is part of a two-track plan, with an overall cost of $144 million, which also involves installing a replacement vessel for the FSO Safer. Meanwhile, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, continues his engagement in the wake of the recent extension of the two-month truce between the Government and Houthi rebels.