Project Masam has cleared 597,963 landmines and explosive threats across Yemen since operations began in 2018, according to the latest figures covering activities up to 23 October 2026.<\/p>\n
ince the conflict escalated in 2014, large areas of Yemen have been contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war, particularly in formerly contested and strategically significant regions. Earlier estimates suggested that between\u00a0one and two million mines<\/a>\u00a0had been laid nationwide by the Houthis, but those figures predate the latest escalation and are increasingly likely to understate the true scale of contamination given\u00a0recent reports and visual evidence of fresh Houthi mine-layin<\/a>g in Taiz Governorate and along the Red Sea Coast. Project Masam has documented newly laid anti-tank mine belts, IEDs and renewed contamination in areas its teams had previously worked to clear.<\/p>\n The cumulative total includes 7,809 anti-personnel mines, 153,275 anti-tank mines, 428,170 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and 8,709 improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Teams have also cleared 86,503,193 square metres of land.<\/p>\n During the latest reporting week, from 17 to 23 October, Project Masam teams removed 932 explosive threats, including 62 anti-tank mines, 854 items of UXO and 16 IEDs, while clearing 188,946 square metres of land.<\/p>\n The figures come amid renewed concern over explosive contamination as frontlines shift. Project Masam has recently documented fresh Houthi-laid anti-tank mine belts, IEDs and renewed contamination in parts of Taiz Governorate and along the Red Sea Coast, including areas previously subjected to humanitarian clearance.<\/p>\n Operations are continuing despite significant security restrictions. In Midi, northern Hajjah, several teams are working on rotation because of the current security situation, while mechanical clearance operations have been suspended.<\/p>\n Special Tasks Team 1 continues to provide emergency-response coverage across Aden, Al Dhale, Abyan and Lahj. Special Tasks Team 2 retains responsibility for emergency response in Taiz and along the western coast, including Al Khokha, Al Mokha and Dhubab, but access to Houthi-controlled areas is currently restricted by the security situation.<\/p>\n Project Masam teams continue to prioritise newly reported contamination, emergency tasks and access to civilian areas wherever security conditions allow, while maintaining established technical and safety standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Project Masam has cleared 597,963 landmines and explosive threats across Yemen since operations began in 2018, according to the latest figures covering activities up to 23 October 2026. ince the conflict escalated in 2014, large areas of Yemen have been contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war, particularly in formerly contested and strategically significant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2532,2578,2577,1553,175,150,2580,1118,337,2248,750,1547,751,2198,149,1436,165,118,224,124,276,263,2579,102,2131,2407,2571,452,293,105,101,1065],"class_list":["post-23848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2532","tag-86-5-million-square-metres-cleared","tag-963-explosive-threats","tag-agricultural-land-clearance","tag-anti-tank-mines","tag-anti-personnel-mines","tag-civilian-access","tag-civilian-protection","tag-demining-yemen","tag-emergency-response","tag-eore","tag-explosive-contamination","tag-explosive-ordnance-risk-education","tag-explosive-threats-yemen","tag-houthi-landmines","tag-humanitarian-clearance","tag-humanitarian-mine-action","tag-ieds","tag-improvised-explosive-devices","tag-landmines-in-yemen","tag-mine-action-yemen","tag-mine-clearance-yemen","tag-minefield-contamination","tag-project-masam","tag-project-masam-statistics","tag-red-sea-coast","tag-renewed-mine-laying","tag-taiz","tag-unexploded-ordnance","tag-uxo","tag-yemen","tag-yemen-landmine-crisis","category-18","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23849,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23848\/revisions\/23849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectmasam.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}