The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has warned of a looming environmental crisis in Somalia from an ageing tanker abandoned in the Red Sea.
The tanker was abandoned in the Red Sea when civil war broke out in Yemen in 2015.
Since then, the tanker has not received any kind of proper maintenance service. Consequently, it could spill the more than a million barrels of crude oil it is carrying.
If the oil spillage occurs, then countries in the Horn of Africa region could face unimaginable environmental crisis.
IGAD mentioned the countries likely to experience the worst of the crisis as Somalia and Djibouti.
The tanker, christened FSO Safer, is a massive threat on the ecosystem around the Red Sea.
Without proper maintenance services and regular inspection, the tanker could explode, catch fire, or break up thus releasing all the oil it carries into the Red Sea.
More than 30 million livelihoods that rely on the Red Sea could be left without any source of income, a situation that would occasion a humanitarian crisis too.