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Landmines new scourge in war-torn Yemen
KHOKHA, Yemen, Oct 2, 2018 (AFP) – For Imad and his sister Alia, life will
never be the same after their father was killed by a landmine and they had to
leave their endangered home in Yemen’s western Hodeida province.
With their house surrounded by the deadly munitions, the two children and
their mother, left Al-Dunain village and headed for shelter at the Al-Waara
camp in the Khokha district, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the town of
Hays.
Withdrawing Iran-backed Huthi rebels had dotted the area with mines, their
mother Fethiyeh Fartout said.
And it was while her husband made his way to market that he was killed on
a road “riddled with landmines”.
“The Huthis then told us to either leave the house or risk being killed,”
she told AFP.
The family is just one of millions caught up in a dragging war in which
Huthi rebels have been fighting for more than three years against the Yemeni
government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.
Rights groups say both sides have committed potential war crimes in the
conflict which has killed an estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians.
While the Saudi-led coalition has come under fire for air raids that have
killed civilians, including children, in rebel-held areas, the Huthis have
been accused of widespread and indiscriminate use of landmines.
– ‘Long-term threat’ –
Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty, which came into
force in 1999, and aims to eliminate landmines and clear up vast tracts of
polluted land.
And indiscriminate use of landmines is deemed a war crime by international
bodies.
While the Huthi rebels have made no media comments about landmines, in a
letter to Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2017 the rebel-controlled foreign
ministry in Sanaa denied using landmines or having stockpiles, adding they
were “vigilant in abiding by commitments” under the treaty.
But for Fartout and her children there is no way to return home, even if
they tried, said her father Jamal Fartout.
“The Huthis planted landmines everywhere, and their explosives destroyed
the roads,” he told AFP.
“All the roads leading back to our home are lined with explosives.”
HRW said in June that landmines in Yemen were hindering aid access and
entrapping people.
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“Huthi forces have repeatedly laid antipersonnel, anti-vehicle and
improvised mines as they withdrew from areas in Aden, Taez, Marib and, more
recently, along Yemen’s western coast,” the HRW said. Landmines “will pose a
threat to civilians long after the conflict ends,” it warned.
In July, the Washington Institute said that, while landmines have plagued
Yemen for decades amid different conflicts, the Huthis are using them today
“at an astonishingly high rate.” While exact numbers are “notoriously
difficult to verify”, the institute said one “Yemeni de-mining official
claims the Huthis have laid 500,000 mines since 2015” while de-mining teams
“have reportedly removed 300,000 landmines”.
The non-governmental Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor recorded more
than 2,100 casualties in Yemen from landmines in 2016.
– “Where can we go” –
“I asked the Huthis, ‘where can we go when the breadwinner of the family
was killed by a landmine?’,” Fartout said. Hundreds of people now live in
make-shift tents in Al-Waara — partly funded by the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), a key player in the Saudi-led coalition.
While dozens of children, some barefoot, run around the camp, one boy sits
in a wheelchair — his leg in a cast. He, too, was a victim of a landmine.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), sustained fighting in
Hays has killed civilians, destroyed infrastructure and driven mass
displacement for more than 10 months.
By March 2018, an estimated 12,000 people had been displaced from the
districts of Hays and Al-Jarahi, some 25 kilometres from Hays.
In June, Saudi Arabia launched a new project for landmine clearance in
Yemen, but “landmines will remain a formidable challenge in the postwar era,”
the Washington Institute added.
– Facing famine –
The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster
Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, accuses Iran of arming the Huthis
with explosives and missiles.
Since 2015, some 10,000 people — mostly civilians — have been killed,
but humanitarian officials say the real figures are likely much higher.
Yemen has long been the Arab world’s most impoverished country. With
millions facing starvation, the Fartout family are now among the 22 million
people — three quarters of the population — in need of food aid.
The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) delivers food and aid to the Al-Waara camp
approximately every three weeks, said Saeed al-Kaabi, director of UAE’s
humanitarian operations in Yemen.
Each tent receives a package of food, including rice, pasta, beans, tuna,
salt and sugar, he said.
But the United Nations has warned aid agencies are losing the fight
against famine and some 3.5 million people may soon be added the eight
million Yemenis already facing starvation.
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