Sad toll of landmines.. and the heroes who clear them

SALAH Al Wahbei smiles, taps his prosthetic leg and says proudly: “When I grow up I want to be a doctor.”

Salah, nine, is the 658th patient at a Yemeni clinic for victims of landmines.

An estimated one million mines have been planted in the country, many by the civil war’s rebel Houthi soldiers, but others left over from older conflicts.

A humanitarian group called Masam has recruited experts from all the world, including a British army veteran, to defuse as many as they can.

In the past 10 months its 16 teams have manually cleared more than 69,000 — and several brave men have lost their lives in this uniquely dangerous job.

At the clinic are the victims of those they did not find in time. One cost little Salah his left leg and he is learning how to walk with a false one.

“I had never even heard of landmines — I didn’t know what they were,” he said. “I was running right by my house with my friends when I stepped on one. I think I’m a little bit brave but I don’t hate the person who did this. I just want to live my life.”

He and his brother Ali, 18, now live in a room near the clinic, a three-hour bus ride from their family farm. Other victims have come even further, some travelling for 20 hours.

Many more Yemenis owe their lives or their limbs to the Saudi-funded Masam group, whose skilled personnel include Briton Herbert Graham, 60, from Carlisle, who is known to everyone as “Babes”. He has worked in some of the world’s most dangerous places, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bosnia and Zimbabwe.

“There is no doubt that Yemen is among the very worst and among the most complicated,” said Babes, who has been here for more than six months.

“We know we have found and made 69,000 mines safe. Potentially each one saves a life. The vast majority of mines kill innocent civilians. Children playing, women collecting firewood, guys riding home on motorbikes.”

The Houthi rebels aim to cause maximum devastation in civilian areas. They have even been accused of burying mines near United Nations food depots.

Babes, who served for 14 years in the Royal Engineers, works from an office protected by huge security and sandbags — with a picture of the Queen lit by fairylights on the wall. “It reminds me of home,” he smiles. “We have a great team here and I can’t pay tribute enough to the Yemenis and Saudis helping to save lives.

“I love my opera, too, so the Three Tenors can often be heard quite loudly across the premises.”

His project manager

Gus Maartens adds: “The Houthis are starting to get angry with us, I think. They know the successful work we are doing. But I stress — we are a humanitarian organisation here and we do no work at all with the military.”

Although some of the mines date back 72 years, the rebels are becoming more sophisticated.

“They put a landmine inside a wheel, rolled it down a hill and detonated it by remote control — 33 Saudi soldiers were killed,” Gus says. “They also have mines hidden inside fake rocks.

“And they put hand grenades under the mines so even if they are uplifted safely the grenade then goes off.

“We have lost several friends and colleagues in recent months. It’s hard but we have just got to keep going.

“When we have finished clearing an area we have a phrase for it. We say ‘the gardening has been done’. ”

For Gus, Babes and their brave mineclearing teams, Yemen is an enormous “garden” and there is still much dangerous spadework still to do.

BRITISH CLEARING EXPERT