The landmines are still causing pains and tragedies in Yemen, killing civilians in cold blood. These crimes are documented in some Human Rights reports to reflect the gravity of the landmines’ crimes in Yemen.
A Human Rights report published by the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights in Yemen confirmed the killing and wounding of 136 civilians because of the anti-personnel landmines planted by the Houthi militias in a number of Yemeni provinces, from the 1st of July 2019 to the 21st of July 2020.
In this context, the report noted that 53 civilians were killed, including 36 men, 5 women and 12 children, as for the wounded the number reached 83, including 52 men, 9 women and 22 children.
The report gave many examples about the planting of landmines that the commission investigated.
The first incident concerns a landmine explosion in Al Shaqab village in Al Mawadim directorate of Taiz province on the 25th of September 2019. The incident, according to the documents and reports attached to the dossier indicate that an anti-personnel landmine exploded at a civilian woman at 10 a.m, and led to the amputation of her leg and the wounding of the 47 years old Youssef Ahmad Mohammad.
As for the second incident, where two people were killed, and according to the commission’s dossier and its content of photographs, documents and reports, and what came in the testimonies of the victims’ families and other witnesses whom the commission listened to, on Thursday the 17th of October 2019, a landmine exploded at the civilian Saleh Hassan Muthanna Amari as he was walking near the highway in Naqeel Al Shaym which leads to Qataba city. The landmine was planted by the Houthis when they took control of Naqeel. The victim was hit by shrapnel in his head and many parts of his body.
A group of local civilians hurried to the place of the explosion and attempted to provide medical aid to the victim in a local hospital, and after performing first aid on him, the doctors in the hospital advised to move him to Aden due to the seriousness of his injuries. The victim was indeed taken to Bureihi hospital in Aden, but he died unfortunately as soon as he arrived because of the injuries he sustained in the landmine explosion.
And concerning the third incident, which led to wounding of the victims Arafat Ali Ibrahim, Amin Arafat Ibrahim and Aisha Darwish Ahmed, it occurred, according to the commission’s dossier and what came in the testimonies of the victims and witnesses, on the 5th of September 2019, when the victim Arafat Ali Ibrahim was with his kid Amin Arafat Ibrahim and his wife Aisha Darwish Ahmed, walking on their way to visit his father in law in Al Khadour village in Alluheyah directorate. And there, a landmine exploded at them on the road, leading to the amputation of Arafat’s leg, the wounding of his son Amin in his head by shrapnel, as for his wife Aisha, she was hit also in her legs by shrapnel.
Eye witnesses and locals indicated that the Houthis were the ones who planted these landmines in the roads when they were in control of the region to hamper the advance of the resistance’s forces.
The fourth incident wounded the victims Hayla Salem Al Awadi and Aliaa Saleh Al Awadi in Al Ghawl region. According to the commission’s dossier and what came in the testimonies of the victims and witnesses, at 10 a.m on the 3rd of May 2019, and while the two victims Hayla Salem Al Awadi and Aliaa Saleh Al Awadi were herding sheep in the reef of Kirsh in Na’man directorate, a landmine – planted by the Houthi militias in the region to prevent the movements of civilians and the legitimate government’s forces – exploded at them. The explosion led to the fracture, wounding and burning of the two victims, according to the medical reports and photographs attached to the dossier.
The report of the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights in Yemen concluded that through the investigations that the commission led, and the evidence it gathered about the mentioned incidents and other incidents related to the planting of anti-personnel landmines, the commission found that the responsible for these violations are the Houthi militias who are the only ones who commit such violations, as the other parties involved in the conflict in Yemen never practice such transgressions that the Houthis follow systematically in all the military positions they control and the regions they withdraw from.
The commission also found, through many evidences, and what was included in the demining experts testimonies in many regions, that the Houthi militias produce anti-personnel landmines with local experts, in factories of their making, using the equipment and storages belonging to the army in the regions under their control, then they distribute these landmines and store them in all the regions, violating all the international agreements that Yemen ratified which prohibit the production, transfer and storage of this type of landmines.
And with this report, the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights in Yemen joins a long list of parties that condemn the deeds of the Houthis’ landmines in Yemen which are killing civilians, without being held accountable until now.
