Houthi militias and other forces loyal to Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh turned to cultivate mines and explosive devices in the areas from which they withdraw. According to sources, the Yemeni forces managed to force the insurgents to withdraw from large swaths of Yemeni territories, saying that they turned to use this approach with the aim of harming the largest number of unarmed Yemeni citizens.

The coup militias of Al-Houthi and Saleh are continuing to plant mines in land and sea amid international disregard and silence, although the use of mines in conflict is a war crime. Planting mines is considered as a long-term human crime as they usually inflict persons with permanent disabilities and Yemen needs years to clear these mines because there are no maps showing where they are.

Al-Houthi coup militias and pro-Saleh forces have used to plant minefields in the fighting areas to obstruct the advance of government forces, especially after the liberation of southern governorates.

Local statistics indicate that hundreds of civilian casualties have been killed and amputated and that the figure is still rising as the war expands into densely populated areas.

Al-Houthi militias have planted mines indiscriminately without documented maps, making it very difficult to clear or detect them quickly and easily.

On his part, the Commander of the Military Engineering Division in the 4th Military Region and Director of the National Center for Anti-Mines in Aden, Colonel Engineer Haytham Halaboub said that the coup militias had planted various and indiscriminate mines, including prohibited mines known as anti-personnel mines and innovative homemade mines as well as anti-tank mines.

He pointed out that the engineering teams managed until last May to clear more than 31,000 mines as remnants of the ongoing war in Aden, Lahj and Abyan and parts of Taiz governorate.

Arab Federation for Human Rights has revealed in its latest report that Al-Houthis in Yemen have planted more than half a million anti-personnel mines in different parts of Yemen, killing more than 700 people, while engineers who were trained by the Arab Coalition succeeded in the clearance and dismantling of 40,000 mines.

Therefore, the Yemeni government appealed to the international community to urgently help clearance of Al-Houthi coup militia mines to protect the Yemeni people from their devastating effects.

Source: Timesofoman