{"id":18439,"date":"2021-08-08T10:29:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T10:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/?p=18439"},"modified":"2021-11-03T14:14:10","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:14:10","slug":"landmines-left-behind-what-happens-when-houthi-militias-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/landmines-left-behind-what-happens-when-houthi-militias-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"Landmines left behind: What happens when Houthi militias retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image source=”featured_image” img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1628418317047{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1635948847099{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”]As Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg was appointed as the new UN Special Envoy for Yemen on 6 August, effectively supporting the international and regional efforts on achieving the political settlement in Yemen, Project Masam continues to witness a trail of landmines planted by the Houthi militias<\/a> as they retreat from areas in Al-Jawf province.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fighting has been ongoing<\/a> in several provinces including in the governorate of Al-Jawf, in the east of the country. Early August, Yemeni army forces stopped a Houthi attack on army positions in the\u00a0Jadafer\u00a0front (east of Al-Jawf) forcing the militia to retreat.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of landmines<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In these newly-liberated areas, Masam teams are finding newly-laid mine fields. In the last week of July, Masam\u2019s Team 11 led by Saleh Naser\u00a0Toreeq\u00a0was\u00a0tasked with emergency clearance of areas from which Houthis had recently been repelled.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Location of mine fields in Al Jawf governorate following Houthi retreat<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the week, the team safely removed a staggering 163 anti-tank mines, one anti-personnel mine and 70 unexploded ordnances (UXO) in the mainly desert area located approximately 145km north of Marib city (see satellite image).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe deadly items were located in the surrounding areas of former Houthi strongholds,\u201d a\u00a0Technical Advisor, who asked to remain anonymous, said from Marib.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of Masam\u2019s Standard Operating Procedure search methodology, the teams survey and investigate any suspected areas – post conflict. In other areas,\u00a0civilians are encouraged to report dangerous items to Masam.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, the locations of the former Houthi strongholds in the mountains became known due to past battles, and thus reported as areas of conflict,\u201d the Technical Advisor explained.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clearing a patch for the future<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This area is not yet fully cleared and Masam Clearance Operations are still ongoing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a populated area and the closest inhabited village or city is located approximately 127km (78.9mi) North-West. However, it is quite possible that Bedouins may travel through these areas in the future,\u201d the Technical Adviser said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bedouins are nomadic tribes and families that are known to be camel and\/or goat herders and therefore move around frequently as grazing and water becomes less available. Demining liberated land, even currently inhabited, is integral to Masam\u2019s clearance work – no land should be left unsafe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we find and destroy today has saved a life tomorrow,\u201d the advisor added.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As of 8 August, the Survey Team is continuing with survey operations of suspect hazardous areas in Al-Jawf while Team 11 has now relocated for clearance operations near Marib city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
This article was first published on Medium<\/a>.<\/em><\/div>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image source=”featured_image” img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1628418317047{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1635948847099{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”]As Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg was appointed as the new UN Special Envoy for Yemen on 6 August, effectively supporting the international and regional efforts on achieving the political settlement in Yemen, Project Masam continues to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[114,218,219,220,221,151,149,222,103,100,97,130,131,99,124,113,140,142,143,141,98,110,30,102,116,123,105,101,109,111,108],"class_list":["post-18439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-al-jawf","tag-al-jawf-attacks","tag-al-jawf-landmines","tag-al-jawf-mines","tag-al-jawf-retreat","tag-anti-personnel-landmines","tag-houthi-landmines","tag-houthi-retreat","tag-houthis","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian","tag-idps-yemen","tag-internally-displaced-yemen","tag-landmines","tag-landmines-in-yemen","tag-marib","tag-marib-battle","tag-marib-clashes","tag-marib-landmines","tag-marib-violence","tag-mine-action","tag-mine-clearance","tag-news","tag-project-masam","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-total-mines-cleared","tag-uxo","tag-yemen","tag-yemen-crisis","tag-yemen-news","tag-yemen-war","category-18","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18439"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18555,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18439\/revisions\/18555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}