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. Regrettably, the anti-personnel mine threat area was located just behind civilian homes and life had come to a standstill for those in the village.
Anti-personnel mines were located and extracted and the high-threat area was cleared. Young boys from the village asked the Masam team present if they were allowed to take their football down the wadi to play for the first time in weeks – and delighted in the response from Team 4.
Whilst humanitarian mine clearance restores peace and security by protecting civilians and allowing them to return home and their everyday routines, it also allows children to be children – and safely play again away from the threat of explosive items planted near villages – and impromptu football pitches.
Since first entering Yemen in mid-2018, Project Masam has cleared 24,123,141sqm of liberated land, effectively locating and destroying 259,984 explosive items including 3,939 anti-personnel mines, 82,109 anti-tank mines, 167,883 unexploded ordnance and 6,053 (as at 2 July 2021).
