News - Yemen: The Supervisory Committee for the Implementation of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the Comprehensive Assessment of the Safer Floating Reservoir held a press conference on Wednesday to discuss developments and coordination efforts to secure the Safer Oil Reservoir in Ras Issa Port, Hodeidah gvernorate. 

At the conference, they discussed the steps and procedures to save the Safer ship from an imminent disaster.

The head of the Supervisory Committee for the Implementation of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement , Zaid Ahmed Al-Washli, revealed the steps taken by the committee in coordination with the UN to facilitate the acceleration of saving the Safer Reservoir before an environmental disaster occurred in the Red Sea and Yemeni territorial waters.

He reviewed the situation in the deterioration of the reservoir and the procedures and remedies that were taken in 2014 before the start of the aggression against Yemen, which were represented by the project of building land reservoirs, nearly 30 percent of the project has been completed to serve as a substitute for the floating Safer Reservoir.

He stressed that the National Salvation Government contacted the United Nations in 2020, to request emergency intervention and work to find real solutions, followed by the formation of the supervisory committee by the decision of the President of the Supreme Political Council, which initiated efforts to coordinate and sign the scope of work submitted by the United Nations for the urgent maintenance of the ship.

He stated that the UN side did not implement any treatments after that, as its position appeared to be in a state of retreat and evasion from implementing the agreed steps, indicating that the file for maintenance and evaluation of the Safer tank remained in a semi-frozen state until a memorandum of understanding was signed with the United Nations in March 2022.

The statement confirmed that the Sana'a government had implemented the necessary steps to facilitate and expedite the rescue of the Safer ship, pointing out that any damage or loss as a result of the collapse of the land reservoirs project is the responsibility of the aggression coalition.

Earlier, The Supervisory Committee for the Execution of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the Comprehensive Evaluation of the Floating Oil Tank Safer, has renewed its strong dissatisfaction with the continued disregard by the United Nations of its obligations towards the reservoir. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) continued to disavow the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank Safer, which was signed in November 2020.

In a statement, the committee warned of the repercussions of the deterioration of the situation of the Safer Reservoir after nearly seven years without any maintenance of the reservoir, which makes the level of an environmental disaster in the Red Sea more significant than ever, which will affect Yemen and neighboring countries for many years. 

The UNOPS submitted its implementation plan in violation of the agreement last May; completely ignoring the agreement and its obligations towards the Safer reservoir, despite knowing that the status of the reservoir could no longer tolerate further delays.

While the committee called for the immediate implementation of the agreement, it holds the UNOPS fully responsible for any leak or explosion of the reservoir, and the resulting unprecedented environmental disaster in the Red Sea. "The responsibility to squander the funds allocated to implement the agreement, which the United Nations Office for Project Services refuses to disclose and its fate, despite the multiple demands directed at it to work on the principle of transparency before public opinion."

UN spent more than 3 and a half million dollars out of the maintenance budget of more than 9 million dollars and no work was carried out.

Sana'a is keen to implement the maintenance agreement:

The head of the Safer Maintenance Committee, Ibrahim  Al-Seraji, confirmed that Sana'a had no interest in obstructing the agreement and maintenance, denying that there were any intentions to use the ship for a military purpose, and that these allegations were false. Al-Seraji pointed out that there was a proposal that the oil inside the ship be sold and payment is paid to the Central Bank in Sana'a under the supervision of the United Nations to pay the salaries of the state employees, but the coalition party refused this and wanted the payment to be given to the mercenaries in Aden. "This is kind of crazy, if they think we'll hand them the ship and give them money to fight us with," he said.

He asserted that they always have access to the ship and get updates through their technical teams. He expressed his fear that deterioration of the ship is getting worse and technical teams would not be able to fix it.