On 13 October, Project Masam welcomed Cornelius N Nagbe, an international law specialist, and member of the United Nations Security Council Panel of Eminent Experts on Yemen.
Given the sheer scope and number of the violations occurring in Yemen in the past eight years since the conflict started, the UN Group of Experts said it is prioritising the examination of various categories of violations and incidents according to their gravity, intensity and significance.
The group’s last report was published in January 2022.
As part of his research in Aden for the Group of Experts’ new report to be provided to the UN Security Council Committee later this year, Mr Nagbe met with Project Masam experts at the project’s headquarters in Aden to get an update on the situation.
This is Mr Nagbe’s first visit to Project Masam’s Aden headquarters since he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed him to the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen in May 2022, replacing Marie-Louise Tougas.
During the high-level meeting, Masam experts provided information and evidence to Mr Nagbe and his delegation of how locally-manufactured landmines cleared in Yemen are today more complex and sophisticated than those previously cleared, and provided information of districts where landmines were retrieved close to civilian establishments, the impact of these landmines on civilians, livestock and livelihoods, and landmines provenance.
The UN expert discussed the humanitarian landmine clearance efforts of Masam demining teams, along with the periodic statistics reports, Masam’s future plans, outcomes achieved, total number of landmines and explosive items removes as well as areas cleared by Masam since 2018 – and since the Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen’s last visit in August 2021.
During the meeting, attended by Gus Maartens, Deputy Project Manager, Vince Farrel, Senior Technical Advisor, Qassim Aldossary, Assistant Project Manager, Faiz Alharbi, Technical Advisor and Dr Zauba Alrawi, Aden and West Coast Operations Manager, Mr Nagbe praised the project for its successes and paid tribute to deminers who died in tragic demining accidents.
Masam announced it had successfully cleared 360,573 mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other remnants of war across liberated Yemeni territory, according to the latest statistics in early October.
The landmine clearance project was launched by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) in June 2018. It works in coordination and partnership with the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) to clear Yemeni territory of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines along with IEDs and unexploded ordnance, to curb the humanitarian catastrophe caused by landmines in Yemen and ensure the country can rebuild, safely.
