Yemen: Houthi landmines killed 1,929 civilians in 7 years, says rights group

At least 1,929 civilians have been killed by landmines used by the Houthis in the ongoing seven years of war in Yemen, the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (YCMHRV) announced yesterday.

“We are closely following what landmines did to Yemenis over the past seven years, and how much land and how many regions and governorates were contaminated by minefields planted by the Houthis,” the YCMHRV said in a report issued on the International Day for Mine Awareness. Eighteen governorates have been affected by landmines, it pointed out. Those killed included 357 children, 146 women and 83 elderly people.

“The Houthis planted mines in residential neighborhoods, farms and pastures which Yemeni civilians visit on a daily basis,” the coalition added.

The Houthi movement has not yet commented on the YCMHRV report.

Multiple Yemeni government reports have accused the Houthis of “planting about two million mines since the war began, killing and wounding thousands of civilians.”

For nearly seven years now, Yemen has been embroiled in a bloody conflict between government forces and the Iranian-backed Houthis. The war escalated in March 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened to back the legitimate government forces.

By the end of 2021, the death toll was 377,000 people, according to the UN. Yemen’s economy is estimated to have lost $126 billion.

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