10,000 Yemenis killed by Houthi landmines

Brigadier General Ameen al-Aqili, director of Yemen’s National Mine Action Programme, has said that landmines have killed more than 10,000 civilians in Yemen, with the number of deaths expected to be significantly higher than current reports.

In a recorded interview with Project Masam, al-Aqili explained that mines have spread widely and significantly in Yemen since the Houthi militias began to take control of areas in several governorates of Yemen, starting from the Saada governorate to Amran and Sana’a. They then spread to Taiz, Aden, Al-Bayda, Al-Dhalea, Hodeidah, Abyan, Al-Jawf, Hajjah, and even Dhamar, Ibb, and Raymah.

Al-Aqili added hat the Houthi mines caused the death and injury of thousands of civilians, who were the first victims of this crisis.

The Brigadier General said that Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) teams and the Saudi Project Masam have been clearing landmines and other remnants of war since mid-2018, clearing Yemeni land and documenting the numbers of mine victims in the areas they could have access to.

“We have documented and proven statistics of more than 10,000 mine victims, and in fact, we know that the real numbers of those who have fallen victim to mines are much bigger, but this is what came to our knowledge and we could document”.

He continued: “Several agencies have documented large numbers of landmine victims, but we depend on our reliable sources, and I reiterate that the number of mine victims is much higher than the documented figures, as landmines have caused a great humanitarian disaster for civilians, who, unfortunately, were the first targets of mines”.