Saudi initiative removes ‘mind-boggling’ number of Houthi landmines in Yemen
De-miners take on hazardous task to help put the country on the path to peace and make the land safe for farming and building
Ravaged by poverty, war and economic collapse, Yemen faces acute humanitarian problems that have been aggravated by the threat posed by landmines.
These weapons have been used by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels during the civil war.
But the Yemeni authorities and the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance (Masam), launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, have made efforts to de-mine the country.
Since 2018, Masam has been removing mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.
It is a formidable task because the number of explosive devices laid in Yemen is “mind-boggling”, said Ousama Algosaibi, Masam’s managing director and programme manager.
“I think Yemen has the highest density of IEDs and mines known to man in recent years.
“I don’t think there’s any country that has had this number laid ... in such a short period of time.”
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has reported that the Houthis have carried out “mass production and deployment” of landmines, laying them in areas near the Saudi border, along the coast and around towns.
Mr Algosaibi said landmines were also found in villages, on agricultural and grazing land and in schools.
“These are all civilian areas that are now very far from any active front,” he said.
“I don’t know and I don’t understand the reason they have planted those areas with mines and IEDs.
“What is the use of planting IEDs under the floor of a children’s school? It just doesn’t make sense. Or water supplies the villagers are using? Or some medical clinics?
“Houthis want to use that as, I don’t know, a terror tool against the local population, against the local civilians.”
More than 500 people are involved in the Saudi project. De-mining is carried out by 32 teams of Yemenis, who have been through a comprehensive training programme.
The Houthis do not reveal where mines were laid, so Masam workers often find out by speaking to local residents during an initial survey.
Residents may pinpoint a location where a mine cost a relative a leg or killed an animal and that often allows the workers to figure out the line in which other mines were laid.
Metal detectors are also used to highlight where the devices are, before hundreds of the mines are collected and destroyed at a time using controlled explosions.
Roadside bombs and mines that are too dangerous to remove are blown up in situ.
Masam has cleared more than 3,200 hectares of mines. It has destroyed about 5,000 anti-personnel mines, almost 125,000 anti-tank mines, nearly 200,000 unexploded ordnance items and about 7,500 roadside bombs. This adds up to more than 335,000 devices.
“De-mining, clearing of mines and UXO, is a precursor to stability and to making land safe for normal use – farming, agriculture, building, roads, infrastructure, that sort of thing,” said Chris Clark, director of special projects for SafeLane Global, a private company providing equipment, training and other support to Masam.
“Wars obviously destroy that. Getting a head start on clearance of those mines and UXO is going to significantly benefit the reconstruction timeline of Yemen, when that timeline starts.”
Mr Clark said the project’s role in Yemen was purely humanitarian and it did not work “in support of military activity in any way, shape or form”.
Removing and destroying landmines and other explosive devices carries hazards that are all too obvious.
But operating in a war zone magnifies the dangers to staff, with Masam having lost 28 personnel in 16 incidents. Half of these incidents happened during de-mining operations, such as when a mine or other device was booby-trapped.
The others were caused directly by the conflict, such as when the Houthis used drones to attack vehicles or camps.
“We have had a number of casualties that are not work-related. They’ve been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr Clark said.
“We’ve had Houthi drone strikes on our vehicles, because of course they don’t differentiate between us and anybody else moving around the enemy territory.”
In one incident, a de-miner with the project was returning at the end of the day when he noticed a roadside bomb and stopped to direct traffic away.
The de-miner saved several lives, but was killed when the device was detonated.
“That’s just one of the tragic realities of working in a war zone, which is not common to other mine-action programmes,” Mr Clark said.
The Iran-backed rebels have increased “the sophistication and trickery” of mines, he said.
“Many of the mines that we’re encountering now are, in the classic term, booby-trapped, in that if you lift them, there’s something underneath them that will detonate,” he said.
De-miners have also encountered anti-tank explosives that were modified so the weight of a person was enough to set them off.
There have also been reports of bounding fragmentation mines that, when activated by tripwires or pressure plates, jump out of the ground before detonating, sending fragments in every direction.
“If you are very unlucky to be standing within that 360-degree radius, it will, in very simple terms, cut you in half, literally,” Mr Clark said.
“These are weapons of war, but they have not been used by combatant forces for some time. Of all the types of landmine available, should you be inclined to use them, these are undoubtedly the worst.”
An anti-personnel mine is often designed to maim rather than kill. Bounding fragmentation mines are designed to inflict several casualties.
“Since the beginning of 2018, there have been at least 1,424 civilians killed in Yemen by landmines and other explosive devices, according to reports from late last year quoting the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs,” Mr Algosaibi said.
“In all the areas that we work in, over the past few years there have been thousands of either deaths or amputations, mostly among old men or women and children.”
Groups such as Masam have helped to keep the death toll down, but the work never stops, because if areas are retaken by Houthis fighters, landmines may be relaid.
“You have advances and then withdrawals,” Mr Algosaibi said. “Every time that happens, we have to move our teams backwards. Once they’re taken again, we move them forwards.”
Mines laid by the Houthi rebels have been found in villages, on agricultural and grazing land, as well as in schools