Saudi ‘MASAM’ project removes over 7,000 Houthi-planted mines in Yemen

The Saudi Project for Landmines Clearance in Yemen, MASAM, extracted 7,146 mines within 102 days of its launching, ranging from anti-personnel mines to other explosive devices and unexploded ordnances.

The report showed that the team successfully cleared 787 mines from Marib and the West Coast in the first week of October. These included 12 anti-personnel mines, 478 anti-machine mines, 287 explosive devices and 10 unexploded ordnances.

The project MASAM is part of a $40 million initiative by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center. The project aims to remove mines left behind by Houthi militias in the past 12 months, and to train 400 Yemeni experts to do so as well.

In its report presented in Geneva on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council’s 39th session, the Yemeni Coalition for monitoring human rights violations (RASD coalition) said that about 2000 Yemenis have been killed by landmines and improvised explosive devices planted by the Houthi militias in four years. Also, that 906 people were killed by mines and improvised explosive devices that the Houthis and elements of al-Qaeda in 19 Yemeni provinces, pointing out that among the dead 133 children and 60 women.

The report also stated that the injury of 1034 others distributed in 17 Yemeni provinces, including 183 children and 56 women, were caused by of mines and explosive devices planted by the Houthis during the period from 21 September 2014 to 30 June 2018.