Yemeni Prime Minister, Dr. Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, has highlighted how the internationally-prohibited Houthi landmines have become a threat to all walks of life and have claimed the lives of civilians, especially children and women.
In a statement published by the Yemeni news agency Saba, the head of government indicated that the Houthi militia had deliberately deployed and planted landmines indiscriminately and not documented it with maps, which increases the issue of detecting and removing them.
The Prime Minister described landmines as a vexing question for the government and civilians alike.
Intensifying mine-clearing activities
Dr. Abdulmalik Saeed praised efforts made by Project Masam to clear Yemeni lands of landmines, in cooperation with the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC), stressing the need to intensify international and regional support in this regard to avoid further civilian casualties.
The Prime Minister also stressed the need for international action to condemn the behaviour of the Houthi militia regarding planting landmines and violating international law, along with putting more pressure on the group to halt landmine plantation, after turning the country into the largest minefield in the world since World War II.
Since the conflict between Yemen’s pro-government forces and Houthi militias escalated in 2014, liberated strategic areas have been left littered with anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, along with unexploded explosive remnants of war (ERW).
Project Masam experts have found that the majority of landmines have been planted randomly, and seemingly without maps.
