News
Before the the Houthis coup, the Yemeni people have been paying a heavy price due to the mines which were planted during the civil war before the unification of Yemen. The mines have remained for many years as a continuous threat to the Yemenis.
And as Yemen was hoping to heal from the mines that were planted in the last half of the past century, the Houthis coup took place, marking the beginning of the most dangerous period in the history of Yemen and especially with the increase of the mines threat. The Houthis planted Hundreds of thousands of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, in addition to explosive devices with different proportions in all the regions where there were direct clashes starting from Aden and its surroundings in the south, to Sa’dah and the Saudi border in the north, passing by Tai’zz, Al Hudaydah, Ma’rib, Al Baida’, Al-Dhali’, Abyan, Al Jawf, Hajja and all the governorates.
Tai’zz tops the list of the governorates which are the most polluted by mines, as this disease spreads in 18 of its 22 directorates.
The Houthis used diabolical methods in manufacturing and camouflaging the mines in order to kill as many civilians as possible. The evil militias turned the anti-tank mines into anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by international law.
The Managing Director of Masam project Mr Ousama Algosaibi considered that the camouflage of mines aims to create a bloodshed, because these mines were planted at random to harm the people; the militias scattered them at a wide level; they can be found in high populated areas and in homes, schools, farms and colleges.
But this danger is not only inland. After the planting of more than 1 million mines in Yemeni lands since the coup, the Houthi militias diversified their terrorist tools and methods to kill the Yemenis by planting new types of Iranian naval mines along the Yemeni coastline, which is considered a danger to thousands of fishermen and to the international trade navigation. Throwing mines in the sea was a terrorist Houthi tool to target ships and international navigation passages in the red sea and the strait of Bab Al-Mandab.
The mines which the Houthi militias threw at random in the red sea deprived hundreds of fishermen of doing their work, which is their only source of living, in addition to killing them and making the families poorer.
This catastrophe forced the fishermen to abandon their work and get away from the sea which used to provide them with fortunes and food, but it became today a source of death and handicap.
Meanwhile, Masam’s engineering teams were able to clear 166987 mines, unexploded ordnance and explosive devices since the launch of the project until the 14th of May, during their mission to clear the mines which shattered the Yemenis’ lives and turned their country into a prison that reeks with the smell of death.
Six years after the unfortunate coup, the Yemeni people lost almost all things they fought to win in the past, and now they are fighting just to survive amid the presence of the Houthis who destroyed every living thing.