Saeed Al-Batati

AL-MUKALLA: Tens of thousands of land mines planted by the Iran-backed Houthis across Yemen have killed 372 people and wounded 754 more since mid-2019, the Yemeni Landmine Monitor said.

The latest victim of unexploded ordnance was a policeman, Mohammed Aklan, who was fatally wounded this week after stepping on a mine outside his home on the outskirts of the western city of Hodeidah, the organization said.

Also this week, a civilian was killed in a mine blast as he was collecting plastic bottles in the eastern section of Hodeidah.

Yemen’s Hodeidah province is plagued with undetected land mines. The Houthis planted thousands of mines in the province in 2017 and 2018 to obstruct a military offensive by government troops.

The new statistics on land mine victims in Yemen comes as activists, diplomats, ministers and members of the public in Yemen launched an online campaign to draw attention to the use of land mines by the Houthis, demanding that the militia hand over maps that show the locations of the devices.

Yemenis say that the Houthis have laid mines on roads and around hospitals, schools and farms, and have planted more naval mines in the Red Sea, calling upon the world, mainly international mediators, to order the militia to hand over maps during the UN-brokered truce.

“The colossal number of land mines planted by Houthis in Yemen has been unconscionable and will take years to discover and dismantle. To help deter more innocent people and wildlife from being murdered or maimed, Houthis should immediately #HandInTheMaps so they can be detected,” the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, D.C. tweeted.

Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s information minister, said that the extensive use of land mines by the militia has turned Yemen into the most mine-saturated area in the world since the Second World War, noting that displaced people cannot return to their homes and farms in liberated areas due to the presence of mines.

“The international community, UN and the UN envoy are required to pressure the Houthi militia to stop manufacturing and planting mines of all kinds, provide maps of minefields, support government demining programs, rehabilitate the injured and reintegrate them into society,” Al-Eryani tweeted.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al-Kumaim, a Yemeni military analyst, told Arab News that it is unlikely the Houthis will respond positively to the campaign, and will continue their mine program. “When tens of land mines are removed from a location during the day, the Houthis sneak into the same place to plant them again. Those maps should be taken from the Houthis by force,” he said.