As he lays on the arid ground, a huge explosion deafens the deminer. Sand and debris blow up in the air, leaving behind them a trail of dust.
The Yemeni deminer has just “pulled” a booby-trapped landmine he has discovered in this area close to the Saudi border, where he and his colleagues of the Project Masam, a humanitarian mine action project, operate.
Masam Team 13, led by Abdullkareem Ali and Mohammed Husein Atef Qmata’s Team 14 and well as the Survey Team were called in October 2021 to survey and conduct mine clearance activities to remove any potential threat after receiving information from the Yemeni local national army who suspected an area known as Al Boque, in the northern Al-Jawf province, to contain mines.
Today, Project Masam continues to witness a trail of landmines and booby-trapped mines planted by parties opposing the pro-government forces, including Houthi militias, as they retreated from areas in Al-Jawf province.
“All areas previously and currently occupied by Al-Houthi are deemed to be suspect, as they do not occupy without laying mines,” Gus Maartens, Masam Project Manager, said.
In Al Boque, the Survey Team came across old minefields that contain landmines from previous Houthi occupation, as well as new minefields with new Yemeni Large mines. The old minefields include a variety of high-explosive anti-tank blast landmines — British Mk7, American M15, Russian TM 62M, TM46, TM57, and Yemeni Large mines.
Huge anti-personnel mines
Whilst surveying the newly mined area in Al Boque, Team 13 found and subsequently removed nine anti-tank mines that had been fitted with nine improvised hand grenades. Placed under the landmines, the booby-traps are designed to explode if removed by any unsuspecting deminer or civilian. By detonating, the hand grenades in turn initiate the primary mine charge.
“The placement of the improvised grenades is to “catch out” the deminer by exploding when the mine is lifted by hand,” Maartens, explained from Yemen’s temporary capital, Aden.
These locally-produced booby-trapped mines make mine clearance even more dangerous, as whilst standard anti-tank mines have a blast radius of 50 meters when activated by over 120kg of pressure, they become large anti-personnel mines when a deminer lifts the device that automatically activates the detonation mechanism.
“This is why all Masam teams pull all mines from a safe distance, to then ensure that they are safe when booby traps like these are placed under the mines,” Maartens explained.
This is not an isolated incident, as Masam teams have encountered “hundreds of different booby traps” since they first entered Yemen in mid-2018.
Masam teams have discovered these new booby-trapped anti-tank mines show “very high degrees of standardisation” — from the materials used to the construction methods and workmanship.
Masam Field Operatives are trained specialists and have undergone years of training in all categories and types of Explosive Ordnance whether Commercial or Improvised. Masam teams are evaluated and tested regularly to ensure that they are familiar with all/any new development of Explosive items.
“If we discover a new type of booby trap, we find out how it works then we train the clearance teams as well as regular refresher training programs to keep the teams updated,” Maartens added.
Emergency Mine Risk Education
Whilst the military provide information to Masam about potential contaminated areas, local civilians also play a small part in the information system.
In accordance with the five pillars of Mine Action, Project Masam continues carried out Mine Risk Education across communities in nine Yemeni governorates to reduce the risk of injury or loss of life from mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO).
One of the efficient awareness systems among the population for the detection of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as IEDs and UXO is through a Public Awareness Poster Campaign and schools, addressing several critical issues and sharing the following messages targeted to the local population:
Avoid touching any foreign object you might find in your farm, house or path/road.
Report any foreign object or concern to Project Masam immediately.
Since Masam first entered Yemen in mid-2018, its demining teams have cleared 287,645 explosive items across 27,795,722sqm of Yemeni land (as at 12 November 2021).
This article was first published on Medium.
