The UN has launched a crowdfunding drive to raise $5m (£4.1m) in two weeks for an operation to remove a million barrels of crude oil from a decaying supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast.
The FCO Safer has had virtually no maintenance since the start of Yemen's devastating civil war seven years ago.
The UN has warned that the vessel will soon break apart or explode, causing an environmental catastrophe.
But work to prevent such a disaster has been delayed due to a funding shortage.
UN member states have only pledged about $60m of the $80m needed for the initial operation to transfer the oil to another vessel. An additional $64m is needed for a long-term replacement for the Safer.
"We're trying to get to this $80m figure by the end of this month. It's doable, but it's going to take a push and that's why we're calling on the public to help us to cross the finish line," David Gressly, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, told an online briefing.
He added: "$20m is really not much when you look at the overall cost that this catastrophe would have. If indeed there were a spill, the estimates that we've received on the clean-up alone would be $20 billion."
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