Yemeni Ministry of Water warns against environmental disaster in Red Sea

SANAA, Dec.14 (YPA) – Ministry of Water and Environment in the Salvation Government on Saturday warned against the worst environmental disaster in the region due to Saudi-led coalition countries’ continuation to prevent maintenance of “Safer” ship and unloading it from crude oil.

“This forewarns an oil spill disaster in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which may extend to the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean,” said Abdulmalik al-Ghazali, acting head of the public authority for environmental protection, in a press conference organized by the Ministry.

This disaster would affect the economic, environmental and maritime traffic in the affected area, he added.

The ship, Safer, is anchoring 4.8 nautical miles from Ras Issa coast, about 60 kilometers north of Hodeidah city on the Red Sea coast, as a floating tank qualified to load ship with crude oil for export.

According to al-Ghazali, “Safer” is considered the third largest floating port in the world for storing oil with a storage capacity of three million barrels, and it currently holds one million and 174 thousand barrels of crude oil approximately.

At the press conference, al-Ghazali demanded that the export of the crude oil shipment in Safer be allowed and that the necessary maintenance of the ship be carried out in order to avoid the worst environmental disaster in the region.

He called on international environmental organizations, United Nations organizations and the Security Council, especially the permanent members, to do their duty to prevent this potential environmental catastrophe, and form an international fact-finding team to visit the floating tanker to learn about the situation.

YPA