Houthi land mine kills 4 children in Yemen

Four children were killed Thursday in the Iran-backed Houthi controlled western Yemeni city of Hodeidah after one of them stepped on a landmine, a medical source and a father said Friday.

The source said a group of seven children were walking through an empty lot near the airport of the Red Sea city, an area where mines pose a constant threat to civilians, when tragedy struck on Thursday. Three of them were killed on the spot while the fourth child died in hospital, he said, adding the victims were aged between 10 and 15.

Liz Throssell, spokesperson of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, said last month that “children are especially at risk” from landmines or improvised explosive devices or unexploded ordnance, although a ceasefire that took effect in April in Yemen’s conflict since 2015 between the warring parities have greatly held.

Land mines scattered by Yemen's Houthi militia are largely unmapped and will remain a threat even if the latest push for peace succeeds in halting the conflict, those involved in their eradication say. They lurk under shifting desert sands, amid the debris of urban roadsides and inside abandoned schools, some set to go off at the lightest touch.

A U.N. panel of experts said in 2016 that the Houthis had used land mines in their retreat from the southern city of Aden. Since 2016, land mines and other explosives planted by the Houthis have killed at least 222 civilians and wounded others in 114 incidents, according to ACLED.