Yemen oil tanker crisis: the UN operation to avoid a catastrophic spill

Yemen oil tanker crisis: the UN operation to avoid a catastrophic spill

The United Nations is transferring one million barrels of oil from a rusting super-tanker off war-torn Yemen, in a bid to avert a catastrophic spill.

The UN hopes the $143 million operation -- for which it is still $20 million short -- will eliminate the risk of an environmental disaster that it estimates would cost $20 billion to clean up.

The Safer, a floating storage and offloading facility, has not been serviced since war broke out eight years ago between Yemen's Huthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa and the waters where the Safer is positioned, and a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognised government based in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.