{"id":18753,"date":"2022-02-03T13:09:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/?p=18753"},"modified":"2022-02-03T13:09:50","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:09:50","slug":"yemen-off-the-scale-number-of-landmines-planted-not-seen-since-vietnam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/yemen-off-the-scale-number-of-landmines-planted-not-seen-since-vietnam-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Yemen: Off the scale number of landmines planted \u2018not seen since Vietnam War\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[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_1643893754463{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

In recent months, civilians, local authorities and those involved in demining operations in Yemen have described the evolving landscape of the proliferation and indiscriminate use of landmines \u2014 both anti-personnel and anti-tank \u2014 as extremely worrisome.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whilst the Houthis\u2019 use of landmines has been widely documented since at least 2015, the sheer number of landmines planted in recent months has led experts to warn that the armed group\u2019s new tactics could hamper mine eradication in Yemen, as well as pose an increased threat to the safety, health and lives of Yemenis.<\/p>\n

Since the conflict between Yemen\u2019s pro-government forces and Houthi militias escalated in 2014, liberated\u00a0strategic areas<\/a>\u00a0have been left littered with\u00a0anti-personnel mines<\/a>\u00a0and anti-tank mines, along with unexploded explosive remnants of war (ERW).<\/p>\n

Chris Clark MBE MC, the Director of Special Projects for humanitarian mine clearance Project Masam, who has been working in Yemen since mid-2018, said: \u201cSince the Vietnam war, we have never seen that many landmines planted over such a short period of time \u2014 and we are just speaking about the number of those we have found so far, which will be a fraction of the actual total landmines emplaced as we do not have access to the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark, a former senior member of United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) with twelve years of operational management of United Nations Mine Action programmes preceded by 17 years of distinguished service in the British Army, explained the Houthis\u2019 extensive proliferation is only possible in the country because a significant portion of landmines planted are produced domestically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Yemen, the vast majority of newly-planted landmines we find are not standard military mines,\u201d he said. \u201cOver 90% have not been manufactured in or acquired from a military factory, instead they are locally produced using high quality components to a high standard. This is a homemade \u201ccottage industry\u201d on a massive industrial scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowledge, technology, funding and access to this industrial scale production mean that huge swathes of land are now being strewn with banned anti-personnel, and anti-tank, landmines following Houthis\u2019 withdrawal from cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me give you an example in Shabwah and\u00a0areas south of Marib<\/a>, where we worked for two years before a big Houthi push [in 2021]. The number of landmines found by our teams had started to drop before they took over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Coalition pushed the Houthis out of those areas, hundreds of thousands of new landmines had been planted over the last months. On a daily basis, the number now found is off the scale when compared to prior to the Houthi takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reasons for the sharp increase in the use of landmines? They are two-fold.<\/p>\n

One is a purely military reason, Clark explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe armed forces the Houthis can draw from is quite small, compared to the armed forces the Hadi government and Coalition can draw from. By planting landmines, the Houthi attempt to balance the odds by using an internationally stigmatised practice of laying landmines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secondly, landmines are used for purposes of population control.<\/p>\n

\u201cTens of thousands of civilians have been and are either killed or maimed by landmines in Yemen alone. The children of many families also suffer horrific landmine injuries \u2014 at a time when Yemen\u2019s public health facilities are under severe strain. Civilians are displaced by landmines, or the threat of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the Houthis withdraw from an area, the emplacement of landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) can only be to hinder the re-population of those areas, Clark said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLandmines, of all types, are an area-denial weapon: it is an effect against civilians, and this allows them to divide control, more or less. Landmines are used for demographic change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark added: \u201cAll civilians want to do is return home, and resume some form of economic activity. But when you lose your goat or cow to a landmine, you\u2019ve lost your livelihood. You can\u2019t survive there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anti-personnel landmines, which production, stockpiling and use of are banned by international law, violate people\u2019s fundamental rights to life, liberty and security. Tragically, civilians are the first\u00a0victims of anti-personnel landmine<\/a>\u00a0explosions.<\/p>\n

On 28 January 2022, Project Masam announced it had cleared its\u00a04,500th anti-personnel landmine<\/a>\u00a0in liberated area of Yemen, weeks after the project confirmed it had cleared over\u00a0100,000 anti-tank mines<\/a>\u00a0since mid-2018.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0article\u00a0was\u00a0first published\u00a0on Medium<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\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=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1524156224953{margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1643893754463{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #b5b5b5 !important;border-radius: 15px !important;}”] In recent months, civilians, local authorities and those involved in demining operations in Yemen have described the evolving landscape of the proliferation and indiscriminate use of landmines \u2014 both anti-personnel and anti-tank \u2014 as extremely…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[301,103,285,99,302,30,303,101,252],"class_list":["post-18753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chris-clark","tag-houthis","tag-houthis-landmines","tag-landmines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-weapons","tag-yemen","tag-yemen-conflict","category-18","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18753","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=18753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18755,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18753\/revisions\/18755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}