An Emirati forces-trained Yemeni deminer with a metal detector searches for landmines allegedly planted by Houthi rebels at a town after seizing it from the rebels in the western province of Hodeidah. Stringer / EPA
An Emirati forces-trained Yemeni deminer with a metal detector searches for landmines allegedly planted by Houthi rebels at a town after seizing it from the rebels in the western province of Hodeidah. Stringer / EPA
An Emirati forces-trained Yemeni deminer with a metal detector searches for landmines allegedly planted by Houthi rebels at a town after seizing it from the rebels in the western province of Hodeidah. Stringer / EPA
An Emirati forces-trained Yemeni deminer with a metal detector searches for landmines allegedly planted by Houthi rebels at a town after seizing it from the rebels in the western province of Hodeidah.

Yemen's hidden threat: mines


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  • Arabic

Fadhel Al Shouaiby and his friends were driving to Aden airport after the Arab coalition forces liberated the area, when his life was shattered.

On what should have been a normal stop at services, Fadhel stood on a mine, which exploded. .

"The impact blew me four metres away," he said of the blast, which occurred near a mosque. "I was still conscious after the explosion but struggling to breathe. I only started screaming after the smoke disappeared."

When his friends approached him, the 27-year-old demanded they stop, fearing they might detonate another mine.

"I looked down at my leg and it was horribly smashed," he said. "The bone was torn into pieces."

Even in areas long liberated from Houthi rebels in Southern Yemen, landmines continue to affect hundreds of civilians.

This year, more than 8,600 people have been injured and more than 2,000 killed worldwide by landmines and other explosives left behind by as a legacy of conflict.

"An unprecedented volume of landmines and unexploded weapons contaminates rural and urban war zones, maiming and killing innocents civilians,long after conflicts have ended,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Mine Awareness Day on Wednesday.

In Yemen, the buried explosives were planted  by Houthis in a random manner as part of a slash-and-burn retreat typical of rebel groups, pro-government forces say.

"The Houthis' goal is to kill whoever is against them," the former director of the Yemeni mines action centre, Maj Gen Ali Al Kadri, told The National.

"They don't have any concern about the lives of innocent people. Everybody is an enemy in their eyes."

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Read more:

Syrian civilians face landmine menace after ISIL

Will anyone be prosecuted for war crimes in Syria?

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Between 2015 and 2016, more than 6,500 landmines were deactivated by the mines action centre.

Human Rights Watch has said Houthi forces used landmines in at least six provinces since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015.

UAE Armed Forces have cleared more than 20,000 landmines across Yemen since they became involved in the conflict.

Despite the thousands of hours and resources spent in demining operations, hundreds have fallen victim.

"I was as strong as a horse," said Fadhel. "Now I can barely manage to stand up since I lost parts of my body."

After crawling to his friends who were standing in the walkway into the mosque, they rushed him to Al Jamhuria hospital in Aden, where doctors told him his leg would have to be amputated.

He rejected the diagnosis. His brother took him to Jordan in an attempt to save his leg. Doctors told him the same thing again only for Fadhel to again refuse the procedure.

The family even managed to gather enough funds to fly him to India, where he thought the doctors would be able to save his left leg. But it eventually had to be amputated.

"I was about to get married, now I gave up because I lost my self-confidence. How would I run a house and be responsible for a family when I don't even have a job and the government doesn't pay any attention to us?" he said.

Ali Saleh Al Barakani and his son Mohammed are also victims of landmines.

Ali is a mine removal team leader, having neutralised thousands of explosives in Yemen's interim capital, Aden.

"We de-mined most of the landmines at the airport until we got the last pockets near to the wall of the airport, " he said. "I passed over a mine, which detonated. The force propelled me metres away.

He went into a coma afterwards, waking up to find his right leg amputated.

“It was such a horrible nightmare when I started trying to move my legs to find that my right leg [had been] cut off  the knee," Ali said. “Both my son and I were victims of the evil I fought most of my life.”

His son was in a car transferring the de-mining team from Khourmaksar district in Aden to other areas where mines were suspected to have been planted.

They were carrying explosives they had removed from the ground when their car hit a landmine on the road, detonating the mines they had in the car.

His colleague died and Mohammed was sent to the same hospital as his father to have his left leg amputated.

Both Ali and his older son appealed to the UN to rally support for the Yemeni de-mining programme. They are asking for modern equipment so that more lives can be saved in the task ahead.

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THE CLOWN OF GAZA

Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah 

Starring: Alaa Meqdad

Rating: 4/5

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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
  • Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
  • Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
  • Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
  • Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
  • Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
  • Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
  • Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal 

Rating: 2/5

THE SPECS

      

 

Engine: 1.5-litre

 

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Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

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Winner: Pharitz Oubai, Sean Kirrane, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami

7pm: Sieh bin Amaar – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Oxord, Richard Mullen, Abdalla Al Hammadi

7.30pm: Jebel Hafeet – Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 (D) 2,000m
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8pm: Al Saad – Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Sea Skimmer, Gabriele Malune, Kareem Ramadan

Pharaoh's curse

British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.

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Lexus LX700h specs

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Jetour T1 specs

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