Abandoned tanker sinks causing oil spill in Gulf of Aden

SMA NEWS – ADEN the Capital

An abandoned oil tanker has sunk off Gulf of Aden, causing an oil slick along the country’s southern coast according to port officials.

Mohammed Amzarba, the head of Aden’s port authority was cited by the official Saba news agency on Thursday as saying that the vessel, named Dia had started to sink after years of being abandoned at the port. Authorities reportedly tried to tow it using a tugboat before it eventually sank, partly due to a lack of specialised equipment.

One unnamed source at the port authority disclosed that the oil slick had spread along the coast for some 20 kilometres.

One member of the environmental rescue committee in Aden, Ahmed Fahim, explained that no one had taken “care of the maintenance of the tanker, so it sank and caused a disaster on the coast.” Adding that dead fish had “washed up on shore.”