Unloading 263,797 Landmines In Yemen, 21 Members Of Saudi Arabian Expert Team Killed

JAKARTA - Twenty-one members of a team of Saudi Arabian and foreign mine clearance experts based in Yemen, died while operating in what is known as one of the largest minefields in the world in the last three years.

The death toll figure was revealed from data from the Yemeni Government and the team under the umbrella of the Saudi Arabia Project for Landmine Clearing (SAM), as quoted by Arab News Friday, July 30.

Launched by the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief (KSrelief) on June 25, 2018, the initiative has so far cost the United States 133 million, Director Masam Osama Al-Gosaibi told the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

He explained that the project field team had dismantled 263,797 landmines, unexploded ordnance, and other deadly explosive devices. From the start of the program until July 23 this year, bomb disposal squads handled 169,792 unexploded ordnance, 83,943 anti-tank mines and 3,984 antipersonnel mines over 25 million square meters of Yemeni territory.

Yemen's government says the Iran-backed Houthi group has planted more than 1 million landmines in the country since the start of the conflict in 2015, turning it into the country with the most mines since World War II.

KSrelief recently extended Masam's contract for another year, at a cost of US$33.6 million. The project is being carried out by Saudi Arabian and international experts through a Yemeni team who have been trained, to remove all kinds of mines randomly planted by the Houthi militia.

"One of the main challenges faced by the team was having to work without a map showing the location of the mines. In many cases, they had to rely on local residents identifying the suspected mined area, which significantly slowed down the clearing process," Al-Gosaibi explained.

Meanwhile, General Supervisor KSrelief Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said that Masam's contract renewal with the executive partner was outside of the central humanitarian responsibility towards the Yemeni brothers.

"It is very important to clear Yemeni territory of the random, unpredictable and disguised mines produced and planted by the Houthi militias, which have caused permanent disability and injury and human loss, including women, children and the elderly," he said.

According to statistics published by the Yemen Observatory on Landmines in March, mines planted by the Houthis in Taiz alone have killed and injured 3,263 civilians since 2015.

Data from the Yemen Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations, also known as the Rasd Coalition, shows 1,929 civilians, including 357 children and 146 women, have been killed in the past six years by mines. Meanwhile, around 2,242 civilians, including 519 children and 167 women, were permanently disabled due to being hit by mines.

During the same period, the coalition documented the destruction and damage to more than 2,872 public and private facilities in several Yemeni governorates, all due to anti-personnel and anti-tank landmines.