Hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have been affected by landmines and other explosive items planted by Houthi militias, an advisor to the Minister of Youth and Sports has said. Since 2015, Yemen’s Houthi militia, have and are still routinely employing landmines directly against civilians – extensively and indiscriminately. Deployed offensively, landmines…
Maca, Dora, Henk, Lina, Sebes, Zekk, Niko… These are the furry members of Project Masam’s elite K9 team, trained to keep teams safe by locating trace amounts of explosives and alerting their handlers. With a sense of smell that is 10,000 to 100,000 times more acute than humans’, dogs can be used in different roles within…
Project Masam is pleased to announce the renewal of its life-saving operation in Yemen for a fourth year. Through the generosity and humanitarian vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leadership, Project Masam will continue to clear landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IED) throughout the liberated areas of Yemen. To…
Regardless of the rainy season and security issues linked to tribal clashes in Yemen’s West Coast region, Project Masam clearance teams are continuing to undertake mine clearance operations to the best of their ability by adapting to new threats. The weather in Yemen varies on geography. Yemen’s western highlands have two distinct rainy seasons -…
Project Masam has destroyed a total of 261,800 emplaced landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) since it entered Yemen in mid-2018. As our humanitarian mine clearing operations continue, we spoke to our demining expert Training Officer Deon von Landsberg about the demolition process. Why does Masam demolish the explosive items it finds?…
Project Masam teams have carried out a destruction and detonation operation for 2,431 mines and other explosive items in Yemen’s West Coast. Engineer Yehya Atef Saeed, Acting Leader Team 30, said the thousands of landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) had been located by 13 Masam teams across the West Coast including…
Project Masam Team 20 was called to a minefield after shepherds and sheep were gravely wounded in the Jabel Alnar area in the coastal Dhubab Directorate, in Taiz Governorate. What they discovered was harrowing: 11 anti-personnel landmines had been planted in the village, in the grazing fields and on the road leading up to the…
A displaced community has been able to return home after one of Project Masam’s demining teams located and cleared Houthi 10 anti-tank mines that had fuelled civilian exodus. Team 17, led by Hassan Al-Ghouri, was called and dispatched after a landmine exploded on 6 July when displaced farmers were clearing an area to plant trees…
Project Masam deminers from Team 6 have conducted Battle Area Clearance in Ataq, a former conflict zone in Yemen’s southern Shabwa Governorate, clearing hundreds of unexploded deadly munition. Over the last decades, this geotrategic oil-rich region has been a battleground between various entities including Yemeni government forces, local tribesmen, the Southern Transitional Council, AQAP and…
After Project Masam’s Team 4 cleared a minefield in a liberated area in Marib governorate, local children arrived on the clearance site asking if they could play football in the river bed. The team had been called following two accidents in which a goat herder lost a leg and one of his goats was killed.…
