According to the United Nations, the ailing oil tanker FSO Safer off the coast of Yemen is a ticking time bomb.

"The FSO Safer continues to disintegrate and could shatter or explode at any time," Russell Geekie, adviser to the UN coordinator in Yemen, told a UN press conference in Geneva via video link from Yemen on Tuesday. "The choppy currents and strong winds of October through December will only increase the risk of a disaster." The United Nations renewed its urgent request for further donations for a planned rescue operation.

It was still $14 million (about the same in euros) missing, Geekie said. So far, 66 million dollars in donations have been pledged, including 1.2 million dollars that the Yemeni group HSA promised a few days ago. However, only ten million dollars have arrived in the UN accounts, not enough to sign contracts with salvage companies. A crowdfunding campaign raised a good $140,000.

There are more than a million barrels of oil on board the 45-year-old storage ship. The ship was neglected during the civil war and, according to Geekie, the systems on board are practically all broken. A small crew tries to prevent the worst from a neighboring ship. The oil is to be pumped out to avert an environmental catastrophe.

"If we don't act, the ship will break and disaster will happen," Geekie said. "It's not a question of if, but when." If the oil is not recovered beforehand, the consequences for the environment and for tens of thousands of people who make a living from fishing in the Red Sea are catastrophic. The purge will likely cost $20 billion. The 20 governments that have pledged money include Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Sweden, Qatar and Luxembourg.