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UN needs to do more to clear Yemen of landmines: Rights group

Wednesday, 28 September 2022 7:13 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 September 2022 7:54 AM ]

Eleven-year-old Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, seen with his mother, lost his right foot and a hand, while his other hand has been paralyzed because of shrapnel. (File photo by MEE)

The Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) has urged international organizations, especially the United Nations, to support its efforts in clearing the country of landmines.

The YEMAC, a human rights body based in the capital Sana’a, said in a statement on Tuesday that the UN needs to pay more attention to finding solutions that help protect civilians from bombs and landmines left by the Saudi-led war on the impoverished country.

It expressed surprise that the UN Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) ignored the challenges facing the center, including the lack of equipment and supplies necessary to clear the areas of Hudaydah in particular and Yemen in general of landmines.

The YEMAC pointed out that it has spared no effort in carrying out its humanitarian role as much as possible.

It added that it has made huge sacrifices, including the martyrdom of a group of its cadres while performing their duty during humanitarian field missions in order to protect and secure civilians.

Yemen has been plagued by landmines particularly since Saudi Arabia launched a devastating war against the country in early 2015 to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement.

108 Yemenis killed by mines, cluster bombs, other war remnants since truce: Report

Report says 108 Yemenis have been killed by landmines, cluster bombs, and other fatal remnants of war since a UN-brokered truce came into effect in April.

The UNMHA reported on Monday that landmines and other explosive remnants of war had claimed the lives of 101 civilians since November 12, 2021, with 141 others sustaining injuries during the period.

“Since the shift of the frontlines on November 12, 2021, 242 civilian casualties consisting of 101 deaths and 141 injuries have been reported in Hudaydah due to landmines and other explosive remnants of war,” it said in a press statement.

Humanitarian organizations have already concluded that Yemen has become one of the largest landmine battlefields in the world since World War II.

The YEMAC reported earlier this month that 324 civilians had been killed and injured as a result of mines and cluster bombs from the remnants of war since a UN-brokered truce went into force on April 2.

It said at least 108 Yemeni civilians had been killed and as many as 216 others injured during the period.

The ceasefire has been extended twice ever since. Many reports, however, have blamed the Saudi-led coalition for numerous violations of the agreement.

According to the UN, the truce has led to a 60 percent drop in civilian casualties, with most now occurring as a result of landmines and unexploded ordnance.

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