A handout satellite image by Maxar Technologies on July 19, 2020, shows a close up view of the FSO Safer oil tanker off Yemen - Handout
Agence France-Presse
June 8, 2022 — Beirut (AFP)
Greenpeace on Wednesday urged the Arab League to drum up funds to rescue a stranded, oil-filled tanker that is rusting off war-torn Yemen, threatening a major environmental disaster.
The environmental group said an urgent meeting was needed for the FSO Safer, after a UN pledging conference last month fell far short of its $80 million target.
The decaying 45-year-old tanker, long used as a floating storage platform and now abandoned off the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida, holds 1.1 million barrels of oil and is in "imminent" danger of breaking up, the UN has warned.
Ghiwa Nakat, executive director at Greenpeace for the Middle East and North Africa, urged the Arab League's secretary-general "to hold an urgent meeting and make concerted efforts to fund the plan to rescue the Safer before it is too late and before disaster strikes."
Nakat said it was "deplorable that the Safer crisis has yet to be resolved due to the lack of financial support".
The Safer contains four times the amount of oil that was spilled by the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, one of the world's worst ecological catastrophes, according to the UN.
"It is high time to resolve the Safer crisis and make every possible effort to avert the disaster looming on the horizon, particularly since this crisis will affect Arab states first and foremost," Nakat said.
"We trust that the (Arab League) is capable of playing this role and expediting the solution. If disaster strikes, its harsh consequences will affect us all, along with millions of people living in the region who will see their livelihoods, nutrition, health, and environment deteriorate."
Environmentalists warn the cost of the funds needed to carry out the operation is a mere pittance compared to the estimated $20 billion it would cost to clean up a spill in the pristine waters of the Red Sea.
The UN has said an oil spill could destroy ecosystems, shut down the fishing industry and close Yemen's lifeline Hodeida port for six months.
Yemen: Weapons Manufacturers Complicit in Saudi War Crimes
Weapons sellers are accused of being liable for Saudi war crimes in Yemen. Jun. 2, 2022.
Weapons sellers are accused of being liable for Saudi war crimes in Yemen. Jun. 2, 2022.
TeleSUR
Published 2 June 2022
A group of NGOs accuses three French arms manufacturers of being responsible for the Saudi coalition's war crimes in Yemen.
On Thursday, Amnesty International France, Sherpa, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and Mwatana for Human Rights filed a lawsuit in the Paris judicial court against Dassault Aviation, Thalès, and MBDA France for their complicity in war crimes in Yemen due to their arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
RELATED:
Yemen's Warring Parties Reach Agreement to Extend Truce
Human rights groups in France have repeatedly demonstrated that Paris' tacit support for the so-called Saudi coalition against Yemen has fanned the flames of conflict and resulted in a major humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
Riyadh's brutal campaign of violence against Yemen, backed by the U.S. and certain Western countries, started in March 2015 to restore fugitive former Yemeni president Abdu Rabu Mansur Hadi to power, resulting, after eight years of war, in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, turning the impoverished Arab country into a "hellhole."
"Coalition airstrikes have caused terrible destruction in Yemen. The weapons produced and exported by European countries, and in particular by France, have enabled these crimes," clarified the director of the Yemeni organization Mwatana for Human Rights, Abdulrasheed Al-faqih.
According to the four NGOs, the aforementioned French factories have supplied ammunition and maintenance services, worth more than 8 billion euros between 2015 and 2020, to Saudi Arabia and its allies.
Published 2 June 2022
A group of NGOs accuses three French arms manufacturers of being responsible for the Saudi coalition's war crimes in Yemen.
On Thursday, Amnesty International France, Sherpa, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and Mwatana for Human Rights filed a lawsuit in the Paris judicial court against Dassault Aviation, Thalès, and MBDA France for their complicity in war crimes in Yemen due to their arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
RELATED:
Yemen's Warring Parties Reach Agreement to Extend Truce
Human rights groups in France have repeatedly demonstrated that Paris' tacit support for the so-called Saudi coalition against Yemen has fanned the flames of conflict and resulted in a major humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
Riyadh's brutal campaign of violence against Yemen, backed by the U.S. and certain Western countries, started in March 2015 to restore fugitive former Yemeni president Abdu Rabu Mansur Hadi to power, resulting, after eight years of war, in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, turning the impoverished Arab country into a "hellhole."
"Coalition airstrikes have caused terrible destruction in Yemen. The weapons produced and exported by European countries, and in particular by France, have enabled these crimes," clarified the director of the Yemeni organization Mwatana for Human Rights, Abdulrasheed Al-faqih.
According to the four NGOs, the aforementioned French factories have supplied ammunition and maintenance services, worth more than 8 billion euros between 2015 and 2020, to Saudi Arabia and its allies.
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