A massive oil tanker about to spill is another sticking point in Yemen’s failing peace process

The Iran-backed rebels want guarantees they will have access to the oil revenues, which a few years ago were estimated to be worth $80m. But there is no time for hammering out a deal, writes Bel Trew

Tens of millions of people could lose access to clean drinking water, since the spill would shutter multiple key desalination plants (Reuters)

Yemen is already in the grip of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It is also recovering from the largest outbreak of cholera in modern history, battling a plague of locusts while millions are on the brink of famine, and struggling with an unknown number of coronavirus cases, while only half its healthcare facilities are still functioning.

The war-ravaged Gulf nation could now be the location of one of history’s largest oil spills as well. If that happens, it could potentially deprive tens of millions of people of drinking water across the region, push many more in Yemen towards famine, destroy much of the wildlife in the Red Sea, and even deal a blow to the global economy.

For the past two years, experts have warned that a dilapidated supertanker holding 1.4 million barrels of crude oil off the coast of Yemen could explode or collapse creating a spillage which the UN says would be four times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.