The Undersecretary of Taiz Governorate, Major General Abdul Karim Al-Sabri, confirmed that Project Masam has managed to secure six districts in Taiz Governorate, allowing for the return the displaced after securing the roads leading to houses, schools, water sources, and farms.
In an exclusive interview with Project Masam, Major General Al-Sabri said that the Houthi militia planted mines randomly and indiscriminately in the governorate, as the statistics of the National Mine Action Programme (Yemen Executive Mine Action, YEMAC) indicate that more than 112,700 mines have been planted by the Houthi militia in the districts of the Taiz governorate.
The undersecretary said that the Houthi militia, upon entering Taiz Governorate, planted mines and explosive devices indiscriminately and intensively, in different forms and sizes, in every area and place they reached.
Al-Sabri also confirmed that Project Masam’s humanitarian clearance work allowed for large numbers of displaced people to return to the districts of Bab al-Mandab, Mawza’a, Al-Wazi’iya, Dhubab, Jabal Habashi, and Al-Mokha, after the project removed mines these extensively mined areas.
Major General Al-Sabri claimed that the Houthi militia’s goal of planting mines was to kill humans and animals, displace the inhabitants of Taiz and force them to leave their houses and farms after they had become contaminated with mines, “out of deep hatred towards the city”.
Statistics indicate that the number of mine victims in Taiz has reached 1,233 dead and injured, most of them children and women.
Regarding Masam’s humanitarian role in Yemen as a whole and in Taiz governorate in particular, the undersecretary confirmed that the project had a major role in the field of demining in the governorate, in terms of clearing districts from mines, qualifying and training special teams for demining, and equipping them with the latest equipment used in the field of mine clearance.
Al-Sabri noted that Project Masam is the main project on which the local authorities are relying on to secure Taiz governorate from mines and other remnants of war, as it is considered the most prominent project working in the demining field in Yemen.
The project has a large number of engineers, experts, and state-of-the-art equipment, so the hopes of the Yemeni citizens are attached to this project, Al-Sabri claimed.
At the end of the meeting, the Major General called upon Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government, on the behalf of the Taiz local authority and the people living in the governorate, to allow Project Masam to remain in Taiz governorate until the last landmine in removed, as the area is still heavily mined in many areas.
The undersecretary said he had sent a letter directed to the Project Masam’s management team and all the teams working on the ground, to thank them for their efforts in order to bring life back to normal in all the districts of the Taiz governorate.
