Ilene Cohn, director of the UN’s mine action service, said over 50% of the casualties in the port city of Hudaydah were women and children, and called for the acceleration of de-mining across Yemen. The UN did not disclose how many of the 159 incidents were fatal.
The figure refers to casualties caused by landmines and “explosive remnants of war,” a term that includes shells, grenades and other deadly devices left behind by a conflict.
Land mines have been laid across Yemen since the 1960s. However there has been a surge in the use of the devices since the Saudi-led war began in 2015.
According to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, the landmines killed at least 122 people between 2016 and 2018.
“Due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate estimates, these figures are likely to make up a fraction of all mine detonations involving civilians in Yemen,” ACLED said in a 2018 report.
Saudi-backed militants withdrew from the port of Hudaydah in 2021 and the Sana’a-based government took control.
Thousands of civilian deaths also been blamed on Saudi-led airstrikes, which have hit markets, health facilities and weddings during Yemen’s eight year conflict. The war has killed over 150,000 since 2014, including over 14,500 civilians.
On Tuesday, a UN convoy Cohn was traveling in was struck by landmines on the northern outskirts of Hudaydah.
Last week, the Humanity Eye Center for Rights and Development said in a report that more than 18,000 Yemeni people, including women and children, have been killed and some 30,000 injured since the Saudi aggression against the impoverished country started in 2015.
The report showed that the total number of victims had reached 47,673 during 2,800 days of war on Yemen.
The rights center said 18,013 Yemenis were killed and 29,660 were wounded. Out of that figure, 4,061 children were killed and 4,739 wounded. Among the victims, 2,454 women were killed and 2,966 injured.
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