{"id":18598,"date":"2021-11-17T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T11:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/?p=18598"},"modified":"2021-11-17T11:31:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T11:31:19","slug":"set-to-kill-when-booby-trapped-landmines-become-lethal-legacy-in-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/set-to-kill-when-booby-trapped-landmines-become-lethal-legacy-in-yemen\/","title":{"rendered":"Set to kill: When booby-trapped landmines become lethal legacy in Yemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image source=”featured_image” img_size=”full” alignment=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1524156224953{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1637148444572{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 he lays on the arid ground, a huge explosion deafens the deminer. Sand and debris blow up in the air, leaving behind them a trail of dust.<\/p>\n

The Yemeni deminer has just \u201cpulled\u201d a booby-trapped landmine he has discovered in this area close to the Saudi border, where he and his colleagues of the Project Masam, a humanitarian mine action project, operate.<\/p>\n

Masam Team 13, led by Abdullkareem Ali and Mohammed Husein Atef Qmata\u2019s Team 14 and well as the Survey Team were called in October 2021 to survey and conduct mine clearance activities to remove any potential threat after receiving information from the Yemeni local national army who suspected an area known as Al Boque, in the northern Al-Jawf province, to contain mines.<\/p>\n

Today, Project Masam continues to\u00a0witness a trail of landmines<\/a>\u00a0and booby-trapped mines planted by parties opposing the pro-government forces, including Houthi militias, as they retreated from areas in Al-Jawf province.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll areas previously and\u00a0currently occupied by Al-Houthi<\/a>\u00a0are deemed to be suspect, as they do not occupy without laying mines,\u201d Gus Maartens, Masam Project Manager, said.<\/p>\n

In Al Boque, the Survey Team came across old minefields that contain landmines from previous Houthi occupation, as well as new minefields with new Yemeni Large mines. The old minefields include a variety of high-explosive anti-tank blast landmines \u2014 British Mk7, American M15, Russian TM 62M, TM46, TM57, and Yemeni Large mines.<\/p>\n

Huge anti-personnel mines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whilst surveying the newly mined area in Al Boque, Team 13 found and subsequently removed nine anti-tank mines that had been fitted with nine improvised hand grenades. Placed under the landmines, the booby-traps are designed to explode if removed by any unsuspecting deminer or civilian. By detonating, the hand grenades in turn initiate the primary mine charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe placement of the improvised grenades is to \u201ccatch out\u201d the deminer by exploding when the mine is lifted by hand,\u201d Maartens, explained from Yemen\u2019s temporary capital, Aden.<\/p>\n

These locally-produced booby-trapped mines make mine clearance even more dangerous, as whilst standard anti-tank mines have a blast radius of 50 meters when activated by over 120kg of pressure, they become large anti-personnel mines when a deminer lifts the device that automatically activates the detonation mechanism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why all Masam teams pull all mines from a safe distance, to then ensure that they are safe when booby traps like these are placed under the mines,\u201d Maartens explained.[\/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L2BpQESXook”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1637148421494{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”]This is not an isolated incident, as Masam teams have encountered \u201chundreds of different booby traps\u201d since they first entered Yemen in mid-2018.<\/p>\n

Masam teams have discovered these new booby-trapped anti-tank mines show \u201cvery high degrees of standardisation\u201d \u2014 from the materials used to the construction methods and workmanship.<\/p>\n

Masam Field Operatives are trained specialists and have undergone years of training in all categories and types of Explosive Ordnance whether Commercial or Improvised. Masam teams are evaluated and tested regularly to ensure that they are familiar with all\/any new development of Explosive items.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we discover a new type of booby trap, we find out how it works then we train the clearance teams as well as regular refresher training programs to keep the teams updated,\u201d Maartens added.<\/p>\n

Emergency Mine Risk Education<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whilst the military provide information to Masam about potential contaminated areas, local civilians also play a small part in the information system.<\/p>\n

In accordance with the\u00a0five pillars of Mine Action<\/a>, Project Masam continues carried out Mine Risk Education across communities in nine Yemeni governorates to reduce the risk of injury or loss of life from mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO).<\/p>\n

One of the\u00a0efficient awareness systems<\/a>\u00a0among the population for the detection of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as IEDs and UXO is through a Public Awareness Poster Campaign and schools, addressing several critical issues and sharing the following messages targeted to the local population:<\/p>\n

Avoid touching any foreign object you might find in your farm, house or path\/road.<\/em><\/p>\n

Report any foreign object or concern to Project Masam immediately.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since Masam first entered Yemen in mid-2018, its demining teams have cleared\u00a0287,645 explosive items<\/a>\u00a0across 27,795,722sqm of Yemeni land (as at 12 November 2021).<\/p>\n

This article was first published on\u00a0<\/em>Medium<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image source=”featured_image” img_size=”full” alignment=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1524156224953{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1637148444572{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 he lays on the arid ground, a huge explosion deafens the deminer. Sand and debris blow up in the air, leaving behind them a trail of dust. The Yemeni deminer has just \u201cpulled\u201d a booby-trapped…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18600,"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":[114,175,151,271,270,269,268,258,149,201,103,100,97,131,99,124,98,110,228,229,30,102,123,101,109,111,108],"class_list":["post-18598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-al-jawf","tag-anti-tank-mines","tag-anti-personnel-landmines","tag-ap-mines-yemen","tag-at-mines-yemen","tag-bobby-trapped-mines-yemen","tag-booby-trapped-mines","tag-civilians-killed-yemen","tag-houthi-landmines","tag-houthi-militias","tag-houthis","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian","tag-internally-displaced-yemen","tag-landmines","tag-landmines-in-yemen","tag-mine-action","tag-mine-clearance","tag-mine-risk-education","tag-mine-risk-education-yemen","tag-news","tag-project-masam","tag-total-mines-cleared","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\/18598","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=18598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18601,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18598\/revisions\/18601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}