Yemeni photojournalist becomes latest victim of Houthi landmines

Houthi landmines continue to fiercely take away the lives of civilians and innocent people in Yemen.

The mines have been planted by the Houthi militias in civilian and military areas across the districts in an arbitrary way.

The latest victim was identified as Issa al-Nuaimi, a photojournalist with the Yemen Shabab website who was killed in the Baqim sistrict of the Saada governorate after stepping on a Houthi landmine.

Journalist Osama Faraj, who worked closely with al-Nuaimi, told Al Arabiya English about his last colleague’s final moments. “First of all, we wish mercy to our colleague Issa al-Nuaimi. The truth is he was a brave man who did not care about the dangers surrounding us in order to broadcast the truth as it was to the public opinion, not as portrayed by the misguided Houthi militia media,” he recalled.

“He used to accompany me on my different field coverages. He was the first to grab the difficult mission and report day and night, he added.

“Tuesday was the last day of reporting I had with my colleague al-Nuaimi. We were in the heart of Abwab al Hadid in the Baqim district after its emancipation from the Houthi militias. As we entered the area, we encountered dozens of improvised explosive device that were extracted from the sides of the international lines and sub routes which were planted by the militias before their defeat. When we passed through a sub route we found ten improvised explosive devices that were not dismantled, and my colleague al-Nuaimi documented the sight with his lens and we were preparing a special report to be broadcasted later,” he said.

“The martyr Issa took advantage of my inattention when I assigned him a mission to report the latest developments in faraway positions so he went ahead carrying his camera earlier on Tuesday to the first clash line wearing his disguise suit so he doesn’t raise the suspicions of the snipers but God chose him to be a martyr,” he said.

“He was wounded from the explosion of the device which led to the loss of the lower part of his body, when one of the paramedics tried to save him; he was shot by snipers which hindered the efforts to save him. As a result, the Houthi bullets stroke someone who was taken to the hospital while Issa was martyred,” he added.