The United Nations is working today, Thursday, to collect $29 million, which is the remaining part of the amount required to begin unloading 1.1 million barrels of oil from a dilapidated ship anchored off the coast of Yemen, in order to avoid an environmental disaster.
The UN’s plan to unload the oil requires $129 million, including the purchase of a large tanker whose price has risen due to the war in Ukraine. The international organization has raised approximately $100 million from governments, private donors, and ordinary individuals.
The UN hopes to collect the remaining $29 million during a fundraising event co-hosted by the UK and the Netherlands today, noting that the cost of the operation cannot be covered by selling the oil as it is still unclear who owns it.
The UN purchased the oil tanker "Nautica" in March and it set sail from China in early April.
The conflict suspended maintenance operations on the floating storage facility "Safeer" in 2015. The UN has warned that the structural integrity of the vessel is significantly deteriorating and it is at risk of exploding at any moment.
UN officials have been warning for years that the Red Sea and the Yemeni coast are at risk because oil could leak from the "Safeer" vessel in amounts that could reach four times that of the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 off the coast of Alaska.
