Project Masam’s Team 21 has announced it has safely secured a farm and water well in Al-Rama area of Al-Mokha district on Yemen’s West Coast.
This came after a civilian, Ibrahim Abdullah, called for help and asked Project Masam to survey the farm to ensure it was free of landmines after several explosions claimed the lives of an entire family.
In a statement, the leader of Project Masam’s demining Team 21 confirmed his team had secured an area of 12,000 square metres, where they were able to remove four anti-tank mines. Work is still ongoing to secure the rest of the farm and allow farmers to safely return to it and benefit from its crops.
The leader of Team 21 appealed to all farmers in Al-Rama area not to return to any farm which witnessed explosions, due to the suspected, or confirmed, presence of landmines.
He stressed the importance of securing these farms by project Masam teams to ensure the safety of farmers.
For his part, Ibrahim Abdullah, a farmer from Al-Rama area, told Project Masam in an interview that the above-mentioned farm was heavily contaminated with landmines, and repeated explosions caused the death of several family members. Because of this situation, farmers were forced to abandon their lands, which led to the deprivation of their livelihoods and the degradation of the agricultural land, he said.
Abdullah stressed that the residents of Al-Rama area heavily depend on farms as their main source of income and that the mines have deprived them of this source and have caused a real crisis locally.
Concluding his interview, Abdullah expressed the urgent need for the continuation of Project Masam teams’ work in the region, stressing that this represents hope for the affected farmers, as it could soon mean the return to their agricultural activities and could contribute to improving their living conditions and the life of their community as a whole.
