News
Anxiety and tragedies devour human lives; they can make the young look like an elderly. The deeds of landmines in Yemen shattered the childhood of Yemeni kids, disfigured their dreams and killed their hopes.
When you talk to the Yemeni kids who survived the landmines’ catastrophe, you will find two kinds of them: those who lost the ability to talk and can’t find words because of the shock they went through, and the others who became much older than their ages; they tell you about what happened to them with strong words and depiction that make you forget that you are sitting with a child.
Naji Nasser Saanoun is one of the latter category. The 14 years old, talks about his tragedy, using a vocabulary that is alien to the world of children. He talks passionately about his motherland, satirizes darkness, and hopes for a better life in the future. His dream is to continue his studies to become a teacher so he can help the future Yemeni generations not to follow the Houthis’ propaganda and not to get involved in the destruction of their homeland Yemen by planting landmines, killing the people and destroying crops.
With eloquence, Naji tells his ordeal with the landmines; he lost his foot and cousin who was his friend and companion in herding the sheep. The Houthis, through their murderous landmines surprised the two kids and broke their beautiful bonding.
Naji and his cousin shared their childhood as they did with the shepherding. But the Houthis didn’t leave them in peace by planting landmines in the regions they were expelled from. This is one of the tragedies inflicted upon civilians, especially children who were deprived from their right to live in peace and security.
Naji Saanoun, in his interview with “Masam’s media office”, represents one kid among hundreds who either lost their lives or lost their limbs because of the Houthis’ landmines. His testimony is heartbreaking when he goes into the details of his story. As he stands on his artificial limb that eased his pain but couldn’t push away the agony from him. He knows that he will live the rest of his life a prisoner to his artificial limb. Naji says while looking at his artificial leg: “The Houthis came and took my leg away from me. They deprived me of the blessing of going out like I used to do before the accident”.
And despite his sufferings, Naji didn’t forget to talk about the tragedies of those whom the Houthis destroyed the lives and childhood. He says in an angry tone: “The Houthis left no place safe. They planted landmines in our roads, schools and playgrounds”.
Naji goes on, and tells his story with sorrow: “There are children and women whose feet and hands were amputated because of the landmines. Abdallah, my companion in shepherding was martyred in that accident. The landmines stole our feet, arms and friends away from us. The Houthi militias killed our parents with their war that they waged against us. They left many people without parents or limbs. They left so many living all their lives in a state of anxiety that keeps devouring their lives forever”.