Project Masam has destroyed a total of 261,800 emplaced landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) since it entered Yemen in mid-2018. As our humanitarian mine clearing operations continue, we spoke to our demining expert Training Officer Deon von Landsberg about the demolition process. Why does Masam demolish the explosive items it finds?…
Project Masam teams have carried out a destruction and detonation operation for 2,431 mines and other explosive items in Yemen’s West Coast. Engineer Yehya Atef Saeed, Acting Leader Team 30, said the thousands of landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) had been located by 13 Masam teams across the West Coast including…
Project Masam Team 20 was called to a minefield after shepherds and sheep were gravely wounded in the Jabel Alnar area in the coastal Dhubab Directorate, in Taiz Governorate. What they discovered was harrowing: 11 anti-personnel landmines had been planted in the village, in the grazing fields and on the road leading up to the…
A displaced community has been able to return home after one of Project Masam’s demining teams located and cleared Houthi 10 anti-tank mines that had fuelled civilian exodus. Team 17, led by Hassan Al-Ghouri, was called and dispatched after a landmine exploded on 6 July when displaced farmers were clearing an area to plant trees…
Project Masam deminers from Team 6 have conducted Battle Area Clearance in Ataq, a former conflict zone in Yemen’s southern Shabwa Governorate, clearing hundreds of unexploded deadly munition. Over the last decades, this geotrategic oil-rich region has been a battleground between various entities including Yemeni government forces, local tribesmen, the Southern Transitional Council, AQAP and…
After Project Masam’s Team 4 cleared a minefield in a liberated area in Marib governorate, local children arrived on the clearance site asking if they could play football in the river bed. The team had been called following two accidents in which a goat herder lost a leg and one of his goats was killed.…
One of Project Masam demining team has confirmed it located and cleared 52 anti-personnel landmines from a civilian area in just two days. Because of their indiscriminate nature and humanitarian impact, anti-personnel mines are prohibited under international humanitarian law, the 1997 Mine Ban Convention and Yemeni law. Since mid-2017, Houthi militias’ widespread use of anti-personnel…
Four civilians from the Al-Tahita District in Al-Hudaydah Governorate have been injured in a landmine blast, Project Masam can confirm. Masam’s humanitarian mine clearance teams operate throughout Yemen in seven Governorates, including Al-Hudaydah located on Yemen’s west coast. The Governorate has been badly affected by Houthi landmines which continue to threaten the lives and livelihoods of…
As the battle for the strategic northern city of Marib continues to flares up between government forces and Houthi militias, Project Masam clearance teams have been adapting activities and approaches amid these moving frontlines. “We are not allowing the Masam Teams to work in areas where they might be harmed due to the ongoing battles…
Project Masam has raised the alarm over the Houthis’ use of children to plant landmines and other explosive items across Yemen. This warning comes after the United Nations (UN) last month condemned the Houthi rebels’ large-scale recruitment of children and grave abuses recorded against minors. During the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary…
