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The harsh natural environment provides usually added abilities in camouflaging and hiding landmines, which makes them harder to be detected by the people, and especially in mountainous areas.
This case applies to Muazza’a and Al Wazi’iya directorates in Taiz province, where landmines are hidden between and under the rocks, as the Houthi militias put them there to harm as many civilians as possible.
In Muazza’a and Al Wazi’iya directorates, in Taiz province, the landmines killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, most of them women and children. Their blood was spilled in a scene that unveils the catastrophe taking place there because of the terror buried underground that spares nothing to target civilians and spread terror, agony and suffering among them.
In this context, the Supervisor of Masam’s clearing teams in Taiz, Engineer Aref Al Qahtani indicated in an exclusive interview with Masam’s media office that The Houthis’ landmines and explosive devices killed and injured more than 800 civilians only in Muazza’a and Al Wazi’iya directorates, and that teams 22 and 23 Masam which work in those directorates were able since the beginning of their mission to clear more than 16 thousand landmines and unexploded ordnance from 30 fields and mined areas
Al Qahtani added that all the areas that were secured by teams 22 and 23 are high impact areas, because they are residential and agricultural in the first place.
Al Qahtani noted that Muazza’a and Al Wazi’iya directorates were free of population and quasi deserted because of the war, and that civilians could return to them only months after the deployment of Masam’s clearing teams there, and securing them from the danger of landmines which turned civilians’ farms, schools and residential areas into death fields that lurk for civilians.
Al Qahtani added also that the Houthis changed the technical aspects of landmines, as they turned anti-armor landmines into anti-personnel landmines to kill civilians, aiming to kill them by the score.
Engineer Al Qahtani went on to say that project Masam has become the closest friend of the inhabitants of Muazza’a and Al Wazi’iya directorates, and that children, farmers and students and residents of these areas consider Masam’s landmine clearers as life savers and their only hope to live in security.
Meanwhile, Masam’s experts, led by the international expert Dr. Zauba Alrawi paid an inspection visit to the clearing teams in Al Wazi’iya and Muazza’a directorates, in Taiz province, where Dr. Zauba Alrawi sent a message to the inhabitants of the province, and especially to those who live in the regions that Masam’s teams haven’t reached yet, calling upon civilians not to approach or mess with any suspected bodies, and that they should inform the authorities as soon as they see them, so that Rapid Response teams can go there to inspect the areas where landmines are found or where an explosion occurred, and then conduct survey operations in order protect civilians from the danger of landmines.
In the end of the visit, Dr. Zauba Alawi praised the level of achievement made by teams 22 and 23 Masam, noting that the supervisors and experts were very satisfied with their work, wishing them success in their noble humanitarian mission.