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U.N. officials have been warning for years that the Red Sea and
Yemen's coastline was at risk as the Safer tanker could spill
four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off
Alaska.
The Ndeavor tanker, with a technical team from Boskalis/SMIT, is
in place at the Safer tanker off the coast of Yemen's Ras Isa,
the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen David Gressley said
on Twitter from on board the Ndeavor.
The war in Yemen caused suspension of maintenance operations on
the Safer in 2015. The U.N. has warned its structural integrity
has significantly deteriorated and it is at risk of exploding.
The U.N. launched a fundraising drive, even starting a
crowdfunding campaign, to raise the $129 million needed to
remove the oil from the Safer and transfer it to a replacement
tanker, the Nautica, which set sail from China in early April.
The salvage operation cannot be paid for by the sale of the oil
because it is not clear who owns it, the U.N. has said.
"Work at sea will start very soon. Additional funding is still
important to finish the process," the U.N said on its Yemen
Twitter account.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Iran-aligned Houthi
group ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in late 2014.
A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in 2015 aiming
to restore the government.
Peace initiatives have seen increased momentum since Riyadh and
Tehran in March agreed to restore diplomatic ties severed in
2016.
(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Lisa Barrington; Editing by
Bill Berkrot)
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