One of Project Masam demining team has confirmed it located and cleared 52 anti-personnel landmines from a civilian area in just two days.
Because of their indiscriminate nature and humanitarian impact, anti-personnel mines are prohibited under international humanitarian law, the 1997 Mine Ban Convention and Yemeni law. Since mid-2017, Houthi militias’ widespread use of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines along Yemen’s south-western coast has killed and maimed hundreds of civilians.
This week, Masam’s Team 21, led by Engineer Abdullah Shaafel, cleared 52 anti-personnel mines, within 48 hours, in Al-Omari area of the coastal Dhubab Directorate. Overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait in Taiz Governorate, Al-Omari is a key military base that has been disputed by government forces and Houthi militias since the conflict spilled into the area in early 2015.
“We received a report about an explosions in Al-Omari area, next to Al-Omari camp, which killed a number of citizens’ livestock, as these areas are grazing areas,” Shaafel told Project Masam from Al-Omari, an area heavily and randomly planted with landmines.
“Team 21 Masam, moved to this area as an emergency team, and cleared 52 German-made anti-personnel mines, during 27 and 28 June, and work is still ongoing to clear the last mine in these lands.”
Between 19 and 25 June alone, Masam teams cleared 39,900sqm of liberated land in the Dhubab district, clearing 148 anti-tank mines and 73 unexploded ordnance.
