Houthis using young children to plant mines, Project Masam warns

PHOTO-2021-04-20-11-14-15

Project Masam has raised the alarm over the Houthis’ use of children to plant landmines and other explosive items across Yemen. This warning comes after the United Nations (UN) last month condemned the Houthi rebels’ large-scale recruitment of children and grave abuses recorded against minors.

During the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres shared a report detailing the recruitment and use of children by Houthi rebels and other parties to the Yemeni conflict.

Three years after its teams first entered Yemen, Project Masam said it has noted a perturbing evolution in landmines planting – the act of concealing explosive devices under or on the ground with the aim of maiming and killing anyone who accidentally detonates them.

“Another sad story we have seen in Al Jawf is that when we have found a new mine, and we have found footprints [leading to the new mine], those footprints are those of children, not adult men,” Ousama Algosaibi, Programme Manager for Project Masam, said, indicating some footprints belonged to very small children.

“This confirms that in Yemen, Al Houthi use children to plant deadly mines. You give a child that is 12 years old or 10 years old four or five mines. They teach him how to plant them; he plants those mines and he walks away. There is no map that is left. It’s a child that has been doing it – they are all randomly planted four or five mines here, five mines there. We have found them mostly on newly-cleared tracks out in the desert or in tracks that civilians use. Sadly enough, that does happen in areas that have been cleared before.”

Project Masam’s evidence reflects Guterres earlier statement that “most children were used in combat roles, and a third of these children were victims of other violations during their association with parties to conflict, including killing and maiming”.

“I note the significant decrease in the recruitment and use of children in 2020,” Guterres said in his report. “I am gravely concerned by the continuing rise in the number of grave violations, including the recruitment of children, particularly by the Houthis; by the persistent high numbers of children killed and maimed; and by the increase in denials of humanitarian access.”

Since mid-2018, when the humanitarian mine clearance programme was launched in Yemen, Project Masam has cleared a total of 23,580,649sqm, effectively locating and destroying 256,475 landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosive remnants of war (ERW).

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