Yemen’s Safer oil company, owned by the internationally recognized government, issued a statement Monday calling for the UN and its special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to condemn a recent mortar attack on its facility in Serwah district in western Marib governorate, and to sanction the rebels over their continued targeting of the company.   

"The bombing caused severe damage to the plant and its facilities and [is now] totally out of service," the company said in a statement.

The attack destroyed a pumping station, fuel tanks and the residential unit housing staff. The facility was targeted in three consecutive days of shelling. The Houthis have targeted Serwah’s facilities for years, the statement added, saying the attacks were in violation of international law. 

The company also asked the UN to sanction the Houthis, and renewed calls for the UN to pressure the group to allow Safer to reach the company’s oil tanker in the port of Ras Issa off the coast of Hodeidah, which has been described as a “floating bomb.” 

The tanker is believed to contain more than 1 million barrels of oil, and officials fear that gasses built up in the tanker could lead to an explosion that would create an “environmental and humanitarian catastrophe in the Red Sea,” according to a previous statement from the Yemeni government to the UN. 

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Edited by Ahlam Mohsen and Casey Coombs