News
The auto mechanic engineer Khumj Showaa is one of the mine victims in Hajjah governorate.
His tragedy began early this year, when he, his wife and six children decided to return home after five years of miserable life in a displacement camp on the border with Saudi Arabia.
Showaa was planning for a better future, but things don’t always go as are planned. The 39-year-old father told Xinhua news, lamenting his ordeal, “I wish I had not come home.”
“That decision changed the course of my life completely. I returned last February, and while I was inspecting the remains of my house and my workshop after they were destroyed in battles, a mine exploded under my feet, and I lost both my legs.”
Showaa is now sitting in a wheelchair in a hut in Al-Khadra village, and his plans before the explosion have completely vanished.
Government forces retook this village and several other nearby areas in Haradh district from the hands of the Houthi group in June 2019.
The Houthis planted tens of thousands of mines before their withdrawal, according to United Nations humanitarian aid organizations, these mines will remain a stigma against humanity.
A report recently broadcasted by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) said that, the army forces have managed to clear more than 32,000 mines in the directorates of Haradh, Hiran, Midi and Abs in Hajjah governorate since the beginning of 2019.
Yasser Al-Rouhani, head of Mine Engineering Division in the government forces, confirmed that the work on clearing mines is ongoing.
In an interview with Xinhua, Al-Rouhani said that, the Houthi group randomly planted thousands of landmines in villages, schools and farms before their withdrawal, and it may take years to clear these areas.
Project Masam for Clearing Yemeni Land of Mines is trying to help the Yemeni government clean the country of mines in order to allow the displaced to return to their homes.
Ousama AlGosaibi, Project Managing Director in Yemen, said in an interview with Xinhua”The project has cleared more than 206,000 mines and explosive devices from all parts of Yemen from mid-2018 until this month,”.