One landmine for every 30 Yemenis

Mahmoud Mohammady

The Iran-backed Houthi militias are using landmines as a means to force the Yemeni people obey them and turn their territories into military locations. The terrorist militias do not use landmines for defense or as a military technique.

The Houthi militias used a camel as a booby trap in Hodeidah on Saturday. However, the camel was blown up and it did not hit the target.

Houthi forces’ widespread use of landmines along Yemen’s western coast since mid-2017 has killed and injured hundreds of civilians and prevented aid groups from reaching vulnerable communities, Human Rights Watch said.

Yemeni law and the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty ban all use of antipersonnel mines; anti-vehicle mines have been used indiscriminately in violation of the laws of war, posing dangers to civilians long after hostilities have ceased.

Landmines laid in farmlands, villages, wells, and roads have killed at least 140 civilians, including 19 children, in the Hodeida and Taizz governorates since 2018, according to the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project, a humanitarian data source.

Landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have prevented humanitarian organizations from reaching populations in need, left farms and wells inaccessible, and harmed civilians trying to return home.

Human Rights Watch found evidence that in addition to laying anti-personnel landmines, Houthi forces planted anti-vehicle mines in civilian areas, modified anti-vehicle mines to detonate from a person’s weight, and disguised improvised explosive devices as rocks or parts of tree trunks.

Human Rights Watch also found that the Houthis have used antipersonnel mines in Hayran, near the Saudi Arabia border, and confirmed their use of naval mines despite the risk to commercial, fishing, and aid vessels.

While Houthi forces bear primary responsibility for civilian casualties and foreseeable civilian harm from landmines, inadequate training for deminers and poor coordination among demining groups has contributed to the problems in heavily mined areas. Various demining groups have failed to adequately share information about the types of devices discovered and their locations.

The Yemeni government and international experts estimate that the Houthi militias have set up around one million landmines across the Yemeni territories occupied by the militias.

The estimated figure is an average of one mine per 30 Yemeni people, the highest level since World War II, according to a report by The New York Times.