JEDDAH: The saga of the safe continues with the United Nations’ effort to raise funds to save a ship that has been anchored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast since 1988.
The plan is to raise $144 million, of which $80 million will pay for unloading the cargo of oil on board safely. To this end, the governments of the US and the Netherlands, represented by the Dutch Ambassador to the US Andre Haspels, jointly hosted a meeting on Friday that was attended by US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lendering and representatives of the diplomatic community. took. Washington.
“We urge public and private donors to consider generous contributions to help prevent a leak, leak or explosion whose impact would destroy livelihoods, tourism and commerce in one of the world’s critical shipping lanes.” ,” read a joint statement, referring to the abandoned ship.
The UN-coordinated plan aims to prevent an economic, humanitarian and environmental catastrophe that could affect not only Yemen, where 17 million people depend on humanitarian aid, but the wider region as well.
“The Safer is a ticking time bomb and it is time to solve the problem,” political analyst Dr. Hamdan al-Shehri told Arab News.
“The ship has been lying unclaimed for seven years. It is the responsibility of the international community to press the Houthis at all levels to resolve the many issues facing Yemen and Yemenis, including the safe dispute. ,
The ship, decommissioned from the port of Ras Isa for lack of any maintenance, is believed to contain 1.1 million barrels of oil – the amount leaked in Prince William Sound, Alaska as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. Four times of
Commissioned as an oil tanker in 1976 and converted into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility a decade later, with the outbreak of war in 2015 and the occupation of western Yemen by the Houthis, safe production, offloading and Maintenance stopped.
The ship is currently located approximately 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen’s Hodeidah province. Given the continual deterioration in its structural integrity, there is an imminent risk of oil spillage due to leakage or explosion.
In March, after repeated, repeated talks between the major parties concerned, the Iran-aligned Houthis apparently agreed to allow the United Nations to unload oil stored in barrels on a safe haven. The head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of the Houthis, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, confirmed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations via Twitter.
The UN-coordinated plan, supported by the Yemeni government, consists of two simultaneous operative tracks. The first involves the installation of a long-term replacement for the safe within a period of 18 months, while the second involves the transfer of a cargo of oil to a temporary vessel over a period of four months.
The United Nations intends to keep the vessel safe and floating until all oil is transferred to a permanent replacement vessel. Later, the rusty pot would be taken to a yard and sold for scrap.
In April, Lenderking, Dutch Ambassador to Yemen Peter Derek Hoff, and David Gresley, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, called for a United Nations-led initiative to raise awareness of the threat posed by SAFE and to raise funds for the United Nations Plan. Visited the region as part of the mission. ,
A month later, a plan started by Gresley to oversee the United Nations’ efforts to raise $80 million from donors. However, so far the world body has only been able to raise $40 million.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the rescue plan.
Innumbers
*181 million – liters of oil stored in a decomposing FSO safe.
*1.7 million – Damage to people in the fishing industry in the event of a leak or explosion.
“If we don’t get enough funding immediately, the weather window to move oil will close,” said Auke Lutsma, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program in Yemen.
“By October, high winds and unstable currents make operations more dangerous and the risk of shipwreck increases.”
A massive oil spill from Sefer would devastate fishing communities on the Red Sea coast and wreak havoc on the waters, reefs and mangroves of coastal states, particularly Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Yemen.
It would also disrupt or shut down the ports of Hodeidah and As Salif, which would greatly hinder commercial activity in Yemen and the country’s ability to receive humanitarian aid.
In any event, the cost of cleanup alone is expected to be $20 million.
“When the Houthis seized power in that part of Yemen in 2015, they captured the safe, but they were not aware of retaining it,” al-Shehri said. “Since then, they have been using the ship’s dangerous structural condition as a bargaining chip, aiming to seize the proceeds of the oil being sold in the market or selling oil on the black market for further profit.”
He added: “With regard to safe, the Houthis will not readily agree to do the right thing, but with pressure they can do so. This will prevent a catastrophe whose effects will be felt thousands of miles away. Bab al- The flow of humanitarian aid through the important shipping lanes of the Strait of Mandeb will be disrupted.”
Having said that, al-Shehri cited two developments – the signing of the memorandum between the Houthis and the currently enforced two-month ceasefire, the first nationwide conflict since 2016 – as a good sign for Yemen’s future. In his opinion, the opening of the road to Taiz could help put an end to the ongoing factional strife and even to the Houthi occupation.
“But to truly show their good intentions, the Houthis must cooperate with the international community and the legitimate government of Yemen and its people and regional neighbors. They must stop using the ship for political gains.”
“If the Houthis do not show this spirit of cooperation, it will have dire consequences not only for Yemen but for the entire region.”
The UN ambassadors from Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen sent a letter addressed to the President of the Security Council in 2020, drawing attention to the risks of floating cargo to the region And there was a call for immediate action. Prevent two nightmare scenarios.
The first would be an ecological disaster resulting from a leak of 181 million liters into the marine life-rich Red Sea. The second would be the havoc caused by the dark clouds of toxic gases emanating from the explosion. In addition to damage to the health of about 3 million people in Hodeidah, 4 percent of productive agricultural land in Yemen will cause damage to standing crops of beans, fruits and vegetables worth more than $70 million.
The spill could cause the closure of Hodeidah port for several months, which in turn would halt the delivery of much-needed fuel and essential commodities to the local population, increase fuel prices by up to 800 percent and double the cost of freight. Will go In a country already suffering from poverty.
A statement issued by the United Nations and the Netherlands government on 11 May makes it clear that timing and funding of the oil spill-prevention plan are of the essence.
Dr. Hamdan points out that resolving the secure issue has long been a priority for regional actors, particularly Saudi Arabia, which has been calling for solutions to a range of issues keeping Yemen engulfed in meaningless conflict.
“The international community is responsible for all the chaos,” al-Shehri told Arab News. “Its passive attitude is interpreted by the Houthis as a green light to continue their activities, so only the international community can resolve the matter once and for all. The solution lies in its hands. “
