Landmines will kill and maim along Yemen’s coast for ‘many decades’ to come, UN warns

Pro-government forces pulling out of Hodeidah has let de-mining teams get to work

Civilians lose limbs — and their lives — all too often in Yemen, where landmines and unexploded weapons are a daily hazard after years of conflict. Photo: Masam

Landmines have killed and injured about 150 civilians around Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah since November and removing the deadly remnants of war will take decades to complete, a UN military official said on Wednesday.

Maj Gen Michael Beary, the top UN official in rebel-held Hodeidah, said a relative calm since pro-government forces withdrew from the region late last year had allowed the painstaking and dangerous task of removing the mines to begin in earnest.

The area — once a front line in the war between Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement and forces loyal to the internationally recognised government — was “very contaminated” with mines and other unexploded ordnance, he added.

“What we're doing is a lot of mine surveys, establishing where the really dangerous areas are for women and children near clinics, hospitals, schools … to try and ensure the safety of the population is increased,” Maj Gen Beary, a retired Irish infantryman who leads the UN mission in Hodeidah, said in New York.

“It’s a major challenge and it's going to be there for many decades.

“Hardly a week goes by without a child, a woman or a young man losing their life or being seriously injured.”

Civilian casualties have drastically declined across Yemen since a nationwide truce came into effect on April 2.

But deaths from landmines were “increasing as civilians, including children, venture into contaminated front-line areas that were previously inaccessible”, UN envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council this week.

Yemen is awash with tens of thousands of landmines. Many were laid by Houthi rebels along the coast, the border with Saudi Arabia and nearby towns and villages during the war that has ravaged the country since 2014, researchers say.

The Arabian Peninsula nation has joined Afghanistan, Angola, Somalia and Cambodia as among the world’s most mine-contaminated countries, where devices maim and kill civilians decades after bloody wars have ground to a halt.

Various UN agencies are working with de-mining groups and Yemen’s government to tackle the problem, which has claimed more than 1,400 lives since 2018, according to one UN estimate.

The state-backed Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance (Masam) has destroyed about 5,000 anti-personnel mines, almost 125,000 anti-tank mines, nearly 200,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance and close to 7,500 improvised explosive devices.

Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, has been devastated by almost eight years of war between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces supported since 2015 by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

Civilians affected by landmines in Yemen — in pictures

• 

  Saeed, 55 was driving to see his sister in hospital in Mokha when the car he was driving hit a landmine, which exploded instantly, killing his daughter, 3, and injuring her nine-year-old sister. Photo: Cherry Franklin for DRC

• 

  Working alone, without a salary or support, from his home in Khoka, Mohammad has been arranging transport and medical support to people injured by landmines and other explosive ordnance. Photo: Cherry Franklin for DRC

• 

  After enduring conflict and displacement, two years ago Eman and her family returned to their home, a tiny stone hut in the middle of the desert. But even though the fighting has moved on, the danger remains. Eman’s house is in the middle of a vast minefield. Photo: Cherry Franklin for DRC

• 

  Abdullah, 35, pours water for his goats into empty storage containers for bullets and soldier’s helmets, the remnants of Yemen’s ongoing seven-year conflict. He gestures to an anti-tank mine lying on the ground nearby: “There are mines everywhere here. Sometimes our sheep or camels set off the landmines and they explode, but you can see them everywhere on the ground.” Photo: Cherry Franklin for DRC

• 

  In Mowza, western Yemen, a tiny school sits on top of a hillside. There’s no road to the school, just a narrow dusty track that winds its way through open fields. The building was occupied by Houthi troops in 2018. The walls are riddled with bullet holes and the three small classrooms are in a bad state of repair – but it’s the land outside the school that poses the most threat to the young pupils. The school sits in fields littered with landmines and other unexploded ordnance. Photo: Cherry Franklin for DRC