Since the initiation of the war in Yemen, which broke out in 2015 and continues until today, mines, explosive devices, and booby-traps remain among the most long-term threats to civilians, as they constitute a parallel war no less ferocious than the one with its bombs, missiles, and air fighters.
Even in the moments of peace imposed by the expired truce in the country, during the current year, this abandoned and loose type of weapon revealed its ugliness against civilians, especially in Al-Hodeidah governorate, which witnessed a state of violent war contact, and then a sudden military withdrawal. Civilians, who were destined to return to their interests in the areas that were closed to them, paid a heavy price with their blood and the flesh of their children and women, either because of mines, most of which were planted by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) or the remnants of weapons, for which the responsibility appears to be shared by the two conflicting parties.
The danger of these explosive objects is that it takes many shapes; some of which are attractive and unrecognizable, as the cluster bombs dropped by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in some areas posed a serious danger even after they were dropped on their targets for a long time, and some of them exploded among civilians, who thought they were precious things they can benefit from. Explosive objects also lure children in conflict zones, as there are explosive detonators and other traps in the form of juices or water bottles and rocks. The Ansar Allah group (Houthis), especially in the western coastal areas, has been accused of making these types of deadly booby-traps.
The booby-traps, too, pose great harm to civilians and children. The booby-trapping of houses in this way has led to casualties that included civilians, activists, and journalists, including what happened in the city of Taiz and its neighborhoods.
The use of this type of weapon means that the parties to the war in Yemen lack the slightest sense of responsibility towards civilians and the other groups protected by international humanitarian law. The planting of mines in the path of civilians, means there is a lack of fixed and accurate maps of the mine-laying areas, which makes their danger grave and sustainable. In addition, the danger of mines remains a threat that hinders farmers from investing in their fields, and thus stops the development process, and many Yemenis depend on the crops produced by their lands.
In this file, "Khuyut" attempts to shed light on part of the catastrophe represented by these explosive devices, through human stories and press reports, hoping to receive a response from the parties to the conflict first, in sensing their responsibility, so that these dangerous explosives do not fall into the hands of civilians, or be planted on their way, in addition to avoiding the use of individual mines, and committing to developing reliable maps of what was planted earlier, and stopping this continuous bleeding of civilian blood.
