Nine human rights organizations called on the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to pressure the Houthi militia to expedite the delivery of mine-laying maps and include the file of mines and their dangers in Yemen, present and future, on the list of humanitarian priorities.
This was considered the main gateway to any peace process scheduled in Yemen and a real guarantee for achieving security and stability for all.
In a joint letter to the UN envoy, in conjunction with his current visit to the capital, Sanaa, human rights organizations warned of the disaster of mines, explosive devices and unexploded ordnance planted by the Houthi group on a large scale, and the human losses and severe material damage they caused to Yemen’s land and people.
The organizations referred to their previous memorandum to the UN envoy on the number of victims through the numbers and statistics they documented with the number of dead and injured as a result of the mine crime, in addition to the numbers and statistics of total and partial damage to public and private buildings and facilities.”
She explained that mines continue to claim the lives of dozens of civilians on an almost daily basis, and prevent thousands of farmers from reaching their farms, which are their only source of livelihood.
The organizations confirmed that the Houthi group continues to plant mines and explosive devices in an excessive and indiscriminate manner, despite the efforts made by the Saudi project to clear Yemeni lands of mines, “pore” to remove mines and reduce their risks.
She pointed out that the lack of maps prevented the specialized engineering teams from reaching most of them, which makes their survival a real danger to the lives of the Yemeni population in the Yemeni areas that are still the scene of conflict.
The organizations warned against the Houthi group’s continued laying of mines, which portends imminent humanitarian disasters. No one knows how many exorbitant bills civilians will pay.
The nine human rights organizations had recently launched a report, “Mine is a nightmare haunting Yemenis,” which documents the violations caused by the Houthis’ planting of mines in Yemeni governorates during the period from April 2014 to March 2022.
The report documented 12,000 violations as a result of the planting of mines, which the Houthi militia was alone in, which varied between killing, injury and damage to public and private facilities and properties, including 2,818 civilians killed and 3,655 injured, in addition to the partial and total damage of 5,596 public and private facilities.
The human rights report revealed that 33 demining teams working in the Saudi project “Masam” were killed and more than forty were injured with permanent disabilities, noting that the engineering teams of the “Masam” project managed to remove 328,184 mines, explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.
The report pointed out that the coup militia was the only one who planted land and sea mines and improvised explosive devices of all shapes and sizes in a wide range of areas it invaded since the beginning of the war until today.
He stressed that such crimes are a violation of humanitarian law and international human rights law, and fall under the list of terrorism and crimes against humanity, and are considered a flagrant violation of international laws and norms.
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