Project Masam, in partnership with the Hemaya Center for Human Rights, on Monday has held in Taiz a symposium to shed light on the dangers of landmines and the challenges of displacement faced by women in Yemen due to the war.
Entitled “Yemeni women between the challenges of displacement and the dangers of landmines”, the conference coincided with the launch of the global campaign to fight violence against women.
Brigadier General Aref al-Qahtani, director of the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) and supervisor of Project Masam in Taiz, told Project Masam that 223 women were affected in recent years by mines planted by the Houthi militia in the Taiz province alone.
The Houthi militia deliberately planted mines in rural and grazing areas, he said, and these have targeted women in large areas in Yemen, and Taiz province in particular.
The Director General of the Social Affairs and Labor Office in Taiz, Abdo Ali, praised the role played by Project Masam in removing landmines and protecting women from these deadly devices, affirming that these symposiums contribute to drawing the attention of international organisations to this problem and pressuring the Houthi militia to stop these crimes.
Lawyer Raghda Al-Maqtari added that women in Yemen have been significantly affected by mines and that the holding of this conference indirectly contributes to mitigating the harm done to women as a result of planting landmines across the country.
Since launch in mid-2018, Project Masam has removed and destroyed 425,000 landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and cleared 53 million square meters of Yemeni territory.
The conference was attended by the Chief of Staff and Acting Commander of the Taiz Military Axis loyal to the internationally recognised government, Major General Abdul Aziz Al-Majidi, and a group of lawyers, activists, and directors of civil society organisations in the city of Taiz.
Anti-personnel landmines are prohibited under the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (also known as the Mine Ban Convention), to which Yemen is a signatory.
