Yemen is facing a grave crisis caused by mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by Houthi militias, Project Masam’s Managing Director has told a leading Egyptian newspaper.
Ousama Algosaibi told Al-Dustour newspaper that Houthi militias have indiscriminately planted more than one million landmines of different shapes and sizes – and in the complete absence of maps in a number of Yemeni regions.
Those mines have claimed thousands of Yemeni lives, Masam’s Algosaibi said.
“Tens of thousands have been seriously injured and amputated,” he explained.
On April 4, 2022, the United Nations Development Programme office in Yemen revealed that at least 1,800 civilians have been killed or injured by landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and IEDs in a number of Yemeni governorates over the past four years. This included 689 women and children.
In the article, Algosaibi slammed the silence of the international community despite the “proven and largely documented” knowledge that the Houthis are manufacturing landmines and IEDs that target civilians and deminers.
Obstacles and challenges in Yemen
“Since the launch of work in 2018, the Yemeni territory has witnessed new developments in terms of Houthi landmines’ manufacturing, and technical and technological aspects, but Masam spares no effort in keeping pace with these changes and overcoming all obstacles.”
Algosaibi added: “We have faced many obstacles and challenges inside Yemen to clear the lands of mines and UXO, like any other competent authority in the same field.
“Today, we are facing the dangerous warfare of landmines and IEDs, and we are dealing with this war by using modern technologies; and with ongoing training of demining teams to deal with camouflaged, new and constantly evolving landmines that have been indiscriminately planted over large areas and numbering hundreds of thousands.”
Algosaibi continued: “We also faced various challenges due to the fact that landmines, UXO and IEDs with a complete absence of maps of minefields, in addition to converting everything that could not be expected, into homemade bombs in a complex and different way.”
Algosaibi said that the demining teams successfully cleared 39,444,793sqm of liberated land in Yemen. Since its launch in mid-June 2018, Masam teams also removed 368,351 mines, UXO and IEDs to date.
