Civilian casualties mount due to landmines in Yemen: UN

Aden, Sep 27 (IANS) A UN mission has announced that landmines and explosive ordnance continued to result in mounting civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah

"Since the shift of the frontlines on November 12, 2021, 242 civilian casualties consisting of 101 deaths and 141 injuries, have been reported in Hodeidah due to landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW)," the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) said in a statement on Monday.

In the past three days alone, the mission said that 15 landmine and ERW casualties, including the death of a child and the injury of 12 other children, were recorded, reports Xinhua news agency.

The toll serves as a reminder of the devastating impact that war remnants have on the civilian population of the governorate, it added.

UNMHA reiterated its call for urgent and concrete measures to clear contaminated areas in the governorate.

The mission remains committed to supporting the parties and providing coordination and technical support for mine action, including support to landmine and ERW risk education and awareness.

Previous reports by humanitarian organisations said Yemen had become one of the largest landmine battlefields in the world since World War II.

According to the Yemeni Observatory For Landmine Removal, an organisation that documents mines, 370 civilians have been killed by landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and explosive ordnance laid by the Houthi militia from mid-2019 to May 2022.

In the past six years, the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations has documented the deaths of more than 1,929 civilians, as well as the destruction and damage of more than 2,872 public and private facilities across the country.

During the first phase of the UN Mine Action Service's project, land survey and clearance operations were conducted in 21 governorates and 233 districts, and over 23 million square meters of land were cleared.

The second phase began in October 2021 and is expected to run until the end of December 2026.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally-recognized government out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict in March 2015 to support the Yemeni government and restore state institutions from the Houthis' grip.