Geneva, (AFP) - The United Nations on Tuesday sounded the alarm to raise $14 million to complete the amount needed to prevent the abandoned Safer oil tanker from sinking off the coast of Yemen and an oil spill that would cost $20 billion to clean up.

"We lack less than $14 million to raise the targeted $80 million and start an emergency operation to transfer oil from Safer to a safe ship," said Russell Geiki, advisor to the United Nations Coordinator in Yemen, at a regular briefing to the organization in Geneva.

"The operation cannot be carried out without obtaining the necessary funds," Geki warned, noting that among the 66 million already promised by different donors, only ten million have been collected so far, while the ship could break or explode "at any moment." ".

"The currents and strong winds, between October and December, increase the risk of a disaster, and if we do not act, the ship will break and there will be a disaster. It is only a matter of time," he said.

The oil spill, if it occurs, will be the fifth worst spill caused by a tanker, according to the UN official, noting that "the clean-up process alone will cost $20 billion."

The total cost is estimated at $144 million, including the calculation of the second phase, which requires the replacement of "Safer" with a safe and permanent solution.

The United Nations remains committed to seeking to reduce the overall cost.

Safer, loaded with about one million barrels of oil, is moored close to the coast of Hodeidah (west), and its explosion or any leakage from it could cause one of the most dangerous oil spill disasters in history, according to a study conducted by the Greenpeace research laboratories.

The tanker, which was manufactured 45 years ago and is used as a floating storage platform, has not undergone any maintenance since 2015, which led to the erosion of its structure and the deterioration of its condition, that is, since the start of the conflict in Yemen between the authority and the Houthi rebels who control the port.

The United Nations said it contained four times the amount of oil that was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, one of the world's worst environmental disasters that polluted Alaskan waters.

The non-governmental organization Greenpeace called on Arab countries to act "before it is too late."

It said the tanker threatened not only "the population of Yemen and neighboring countries," but also "the region's fragile ecosystems, particularly the unique biodiversity of the Red Sea."