A new report in the journal Nature Sustainability warns of an “increasingly likely” massive oil spill from an abandoned, decaying oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Such a spill could further disrupt access to food and clean water

Sanaa, October 13 (RHC)-- A new report in the journal Nature Sustainability warns of an “increasingly likely” massive oil spill from an abandoned, decaying oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Such a spill could further disrupt access to food and clean water to some 9 million people — and trigger an environmental catastrophe that would impact the entire region. 

The vessel has been deserted in the Red Sea for over six years and is loaded with more than a million barrels of crude oil -- four times as much oil as spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. 

Yemenis are already facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, triggered by a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war.