News
Since the coup of the Houthi militias and their open war declaration against Yemen and its people, the Houthis didn’t stop at destroying the political, cultural and social life in Yemen, they worked on destroying Yemeni lands through mining them with about 2 million landmines in different shapes and sizes.
The Houthi militias follow the method of planting landmines in all the regions they enter, to kill as many people as possible, and to deny them the right to return to their homes and cultivate their lands.
The leader of team 26 Masam, Engineer Samy Sa’eed confirmed that the Houthi militias persisted in their crimes through planting tens of thousands of landmines and explosive devices, randomly and extensively in 10 directorates of Al Hudaydah province.
Sa’eed noted that the fate of civilians in Al Hudaydah province remains unknown, because the majority of them work in agriculture and shepherding, and some of them work as fishermen.
To fight and kill civilians, the Houthi militias planted landmines deliberately and in evil ways in roads, farms and fishing ports, by camouflaging them to make them hard to be detected by common civilians.
The leader of team 26 Masam, which works in Al Khokha directorate said in an exclusive interview with Masam’s media office that the Houthi militias have been very resourceful in producing and planting the landmines, and that they changed their technical characteristics by turning the anti-tank landmines into anti-personnel landmines that explode at women and children.
He indicated that his team (consisted of 6 deminers and one medical attache) was able since it joined project Masam and was assigned to work in Al Khokha directorate more than a year ago to clear 12 thousand landmines, explosive devices and unexploded ordnance from 16 mined fields and areas.
He also indicated that his team was able to secure all the major roads in Al Khokha directorate, and most of the minor roads, and was also able to secure 46 farms that were endangered by desertification because of the landmines, and that their owners were able to reclaim and cultivate them again.
Engineer Sa’eed noted that Al Khokha directorate is considered quasi-safe from the landmines and war remnants, but there are still some regions which are close to the conflict zone that the Houthi militias infiltrate to plant landmines and explosive devices in civlians’ roads, which led to the killing and wounding of many civilians, this is why we call upon our civilian brothers to be careful when they move and to inform us about any suspicious object so we can inspect it and destroy it for their protection.
Engineer Samy Sa’eed concluded by saying that project Masam and through its clearing teams working in the western coast’s directorates generally, and especially in Al Khokah directorate, were able to bring life back to thousands of civilians after the teams secured their farms, houses and roads, and enabled them to return to them safely and away from the danger of landmines that were lurking to kill them.