It was a call that Nasser Al-Samsom, the leader of Project Masam’s demining Team 7, was not expecting to receive.
Calls made to his demining team usually follow the spotting of a landmine on a road, concerns that a metallic object could turn out to be an improvised explosive device (IED) nestled between rocks in a grazing spot, or more tragically, the report of a landmine accident in a residential area.
But this call was different.
On the phone, deminer Al-Samsom was invited to visit a household in the frontline area of Hudaydah, on Yemen’s strategic Red Sea coast, where a father had been hoarding deadly landmines in his home — waiting to sell them to the Ansar Allah armed group (more commonly known as the Houthis) operating in Yemen — for a few coins.
Since the conflict between Yemen’s pro-government forces and Houthi militias, and affiliated groups, escalated in 2014, liberated strategic areas have been left littered with millions of Houthi anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, along with unexploded explosive remnants of war (ERW).
Anti-personnel landmines, which production, stockpiling and use of are banned by international law, violate people’s fundamental rights to life, liberty and security. Tragically, civilians are the first victims of anti-personnel landmine explosions, and landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are now the major cause of civilian casualties in the war-torn country.
The Houthis are reported to have planted one to two million landmines across vital areas of Yemen. (Credit: Project Masam)
Stockpiling of weapons
“Because of the conflict, many villages and communities have lost the livelihood they depended on for the day-to-day existence. Farms became unsafe to produce crops and many people did not have employment,” Al-Samsom, whose team made up of Yemeni deminers clears EWR in the mine-infested coastal Dhubab district of Taiz in south-western Yemen, explained.
“The Yemeni people suffered financially because of economic deterioration across the country. As a result of this, many believed that explosive ordnance and materials were suitable to sell on the black market to receive money to support their families, and were mainly sold as scrap metal to scrap dealers at low cost.”
While Project Masam has been aware that unknowing civilians have been stockpiling landmines and other ERW that are used as currency for years (in Marib’s gun market, a landmine sells for an average YER 5,000 — the equivalent of GBP 14.6, or USD 19.9), the scale of the issue is only just recently coming to light.
Explosive items handed over by civilians to Project Masam demining teams (Credit: Project Masam)
Landmines ‘worth the money’
The leader of demining Team 18, Ahmed Al-Radfani , who operates in Qa’atabah in the Al-Dhale region (a historic fault line between former North and South Yemen, and now between Houthis and the internationally-recognised government), said he is aware civilians were hoarding landmines for several reasons including, “selling them to the Houthis, and selling them in the markets”.
“You weren’t sure [about what the weapons were], but you knew it was worth the money,” Al-Radfani explained.
According to local reports, verified by Project Masam, civilians living in embattled zones, such as Yemen’s vital Red Sea coast or border gateways to the south, hoarding landmines and other remnants of war started to do so after the Houthi withdrew from villages and cities, beaches and mountainous areas in 2017.
Project Masam found that landmines were discovered in Houthis weapon caches that were left abandoned after the militias fled battle sites, others were left in the open or disturbed by floods, while further mines were reported to the Resistance or simply taken home by civilians.
“Most civilians have stored them since 2017 and still keep these mines to this day in order to sell or use them for various purposes, including extracting the TNT for the purpose of blowing up and deepening their water wells, blasting stones for the purpose of construction or building roads leading to homes, and using them for purposes that disturb the security of the homeland,” Al-Radfani added.
Abdullah Mohamed Sha’fil Qutaibi, leader of demining Team 21, meanwhile, added another explanation: “While civilians use explosive materials to blow up rocks, some also use chemicals found in local [-ly manufactured] landmines to fertilise farms; this is what we know.”
Explosive items handed over by civilians to Project Masam demining teams (Credit: Project Masam)
Young children among landmines
When asked, the deminers who have visited households across western and southern Yemen to retrieve stockpiled Houthi landmines explained the explosive devices were found hoarded “in kitchens, sleeping places, and in courtyards”, which “increases the risk of their unintentional use”.
In other instances, landmines are stored inside uninhabited rooms inside houses, or in damaged and abandoned buildings. Some are also kept in areas where the sheep and goats are kept, while other civilians bury the items outside their homes under trees and bushes.
In some cases, Qutaibi, whose team carries out its landmine clearance operations in mine-affected Mocha in the disputed and divided Taiz province, added some landmines found in homesteads showed that detonators had been tampered with “because civilians have an idea about removing detonators from mines”.
Many families had children under the age of five living in the house, Al-Radfani explained, adding that civilians collecting landmines in their homes were “in adulthood, between 20 and 50 although some were older individuals, married and responsible for their homes”.
Shockingly, Al-Radfani, who visited a home where the youngest child was 3, highlighted: “During the height of the war, this indicated a lack of awareness; [now civilians] understand the dangers, but they are other purposes in it [stockpiling landmines], despite their understanding of the dangers”.
In some instances, the leader of Team 23, Abdo Ibrahim Mohamed Farea, whose team also works in Dhubab, said the stockpiling of landmines in civilian homes had only come to light “because of some disasters [that occurred] due to bad handling or tampering with these munitions”.
Explosive itens handed over by civilians to Project Masam demining teams (Credit: Project Masam)
Effective awareness campaigns
Back to Al-Samsom’s latest handover anecdote, and it is now clear why the father, who we will not identify for security reasons, decided to give up his spoils of war.
In a relatively new phenomenon, awareness campaigns have started to turn the tide in Yemen, Project Masam demining experts are agreeing.
“At the beginning of the conflict, people were afraid to report landmines. For fear of punishments or social stigma, or for the purpose of keeping them and adorning them in houses, or for the purpose of selling and trading them in, civilians did not realise that they were perpetuating the ongoing and deadly danger that was threatening their lives and that of their families,” Aref Al-Qahtani, leader of demining Team 22, explained.
“But as understanding about the dangers of landmines and munitions has increased, they have become more aware. And that includes the importance of reporting landmines in your own home.”
Through direct and indirect awareness campaigns, known in the mine action sector as Explosive Ordnance Risk Education, or EORE, carried out during field visits to schools, mosques, during sporting events or market days, and across residential communities or with posters and leaflets, Project Masam’s deminers are able to maintain a good communication with local communities.
“This includes all the information necessary about the safe behaviours to be followed when encountering suspicious objects and it extends to the stockpiling of landmines in affected communities as a result of ignorance, economic or social need, or because of the disease of curiosity and exploration,” Qahtani added.
“These outreach activities carried out by our teams have helped break down psychological barriers and fear of reporting, as people started to understand the risks their families and communities may be exposed to when these elements are ignored.”
Team 22 and Team 23 carry out indirect and direct EORE in civilian areas in Dhubab and Al-Qahirah respectively in Yemen’s Taiz region (Credit: Project Masam)
Yemeni society mentality change
Since late 2023, the demining teams have recorded an increase in the reporting of hoarded mines, proof they say of the tangible results of EORE as Yemeni society’s understanding of the dangers of these weapons slowly shifts.
Indeed, before 2014, the majority of Yemenis had not encountered landmines before and were unfamiliar with this new threat.
“The majority believed that keeping these munitions would benefit them but as the days went by, it became clear that the retention of such devices was a disaster in itself,” Farea, from Team 23, pointed out.
In one house, Team 21, led by Qutaibi, discovered “children of all ages, about four landmines and a lot of shells”, for example.
This mentality transformation is helping deminers working for mine action programmes across Yemen in their mission to clear and remove mines and reduce the number of casualties among civilians, especially women and children.
Speaking from Ad Dhale, Al-Radfani added: “Civilians are responding well to our team after we raised their awareness; now knowing the dangers, they are handing over a number of mines and explosive ordnance that they had, are informing our team of their whereabouts and the places found by the civilians, as well as informing our team of any suspicious object.”
This is an ongoing mission for deminers, as Al-Radfani said “indigenous peoples and those displaced from the war still need constant awareness.”
Civilians in western Yemen at the end of an EORE session carried out by Project Masam (Credit: Project Masam)
Involving professionals
Project Masam’s awareness campaign also targeted scrap shop owners, who are encouraged to refrain from buying ERW from civilians.
In Taiz, for instance, Project Masam along with the Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) management wrote an official letter which was delivered to the director of security of Mawza’ Directorate asking him to inform scrap shops to refuse ammunition of any shape or form.
Awareness has also been instrumental in educating the wider community about the dangers of UXO and mines.
This is especially true of professionals such as contractors who implement service and development projects in the field of education, health, roads, agriculture, or water projects, across liberated areas of Yemen, and owners of heavy equipment, whether tillers, tractors or transport vehicles, who are keen to reduce risk.
“The community interaction was good, and the community is still cooperative,” Farea underlined.
Explosive weapons handed over by a scrap dealer by Project Masam (Credit: Project Masam)
Part of social change movement
In 2023, civilians handed over 82 various explosive items. This number climbed to 184 by mid-2024.
“I feel that I have done humanitarian work to help civilians and we have spared them many accidents,” Qutaibi said, looking back at his team’s work. “It proves that the community has gained the trust of Project Masam teams because we want to help them to live in a safe environment and to reduce the pain and suffering cause by accidents”.
This feeling is echoed by Al-Qahtani, whose demining Team 22 operates in Al-Qahirah in Taiz: “I feel very proud to see the results of the awareness campaigns of Project Masam. Each person reporting a mine is a step towards protecting the community and reducing the risk of explosive ordnance.”
EORE has had a sizeable impact on people’s understanding of the dangers of explosive remnants of war, but the challenges facing civilian communities, professionals in all sectors of the economy, and mine action personnel will continue until every single landmine, IED and EXO has been cleared in Yemen.
In 2024, Project Masam reported that the Houthis had planted new landmines along the flashpoint Red Sea coast in what was believed to be preparation for potential future offensives.
First published by Medium.
