Yahya Ali Salem is a Yemeni farmer. He used to grow grains, melons, sesame and fodder for livestock. Then he was displaced by the conflict. When his area was liberated, he was finally able to return home, to his land. What he found was an area littered with landmines. Since the conflict between Yemen’s pro-government…
In the midst of the continued threat from landmines in liberated areas of Yemen, Project Masam is still finding moments of triumph and celebration. The sheer number of landmines planted in recent months has led experts to warn that the armed group’s new tactics could hamper mine eradication in Yemen, as well as pose an…
This week, we met with Ahmed Kurda, the Secretary General of the Local Council in Usailan Directorate in Shabwah Governorate – one of the most landmine contaminated area of Yemen after Masam teams cleared thousands of landmines in just seven days. The country’s central energy-rich Shabwah Governorate has been a central frontline in the conflict between Houthi militias…
Project Masam has reached a new significant milestone after clearing its 4,500th anti-personnel landmine in Yemen since Masam started its operations in mid-2018. Since the conflict between Yemen’s pro-government forces and Houthi militias escalated in 2014, liberated strategic areas have been left littered with Houthi anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, along with unexploded explosive remnants of war…
Giving an update about the situation in Yemen’s Usailan Directorate, the Deputy Director of the National Mine Action Program Muntather Al-Radfani warned about new, more widespread methods used to plant anti-personnel and anti-tank mines in the region. The country’s central energy-rich Shabwah Governorate has been a central frontline in the conflict between Houthi militias and…
Project Masam has reached a significant milestone after clearing its 300,000th landmine and unexploded ordnance in Yemen. Operating since mid-2018, Masam currently has 32 teams working in liberated areas across the country and conducts humanitarian clearance in accordance with priorities set by the Yemeni National Authority. On 1 January 2022, Managing Director and Programme Manager…
Civilians displaced by the conflict in western Yemen are returning home after liberation to find their houses and villages mined, Project Masam has warned. In November this year, Yemen’s pro-government forces took full control of previously-held key areas in eastern Hays, in southern Hodeidah Governorate. The Hays District was initially liberated in 2018 but Hodeidah…
Last week, two Masam teams were separately contacted by locals, who asked if they could hand in landmines that they had found in their villages in Yemen’s central Provinces of Marib and Shabwah, respectively. Both provinces have been central frontlines in the conflict between Houthi militias and pro-government forces and have been littered with landmines and other remnants of…
Like Abdou Hamdi, farmers and herders who take their cattle – goats and sheep – to graze in areas where the risk is unknown are the ones most affected by landmines in Yemen. Because of the nature of their occupation, any physical or emotional injury can have devastating, life-changing implications. Abdou was herding his sheep…
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…
