Sanaa: Two separate landmine explosions killed four civilians in Yemen, a security official said.
“Three people, including two children, were killed in Hodeidah’s southern district of Durayhimi by an explosion caused by a landmine that the Houthis had earlier planted,” the official told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
“The victims were riding their motorcycle and heading to their residential area in Hodeidah when they were hit by the explosion,” he said.
In the northeastern oil-rich province of Marib, another landmine explosion killed one person and injured two others.
Last month, the Yemen Landmine Observatory Centre, an independent organization tasked with documenting and monitoring casualties of landmines, said that 81 people were killed and 192 others wounded in blasts caused by mines and explosive devices during the UN-brokered truce that began in April and expired in early October without being extended.
According to pro-government demining experts in Yemen, more than 1 million landmines have been laid since the outbreak of the civil war in late 2014.
In the past six years, the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations has documented the deaths of more than 1,929 civilians, as well as the destruction and damage of more than 2,872 public and private facilities across the country.
During the first phase of the UN Mine Action Service’s project, land survey and clearance operations were conducted in 21 governorates and 233 districts, and over 23 million square meters of land were cleared.
The second phase began in October 2021 and is expected to run until the end of December 2026.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally-recognized government out of the capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict in March 2015 to support the Yemeni government and restore state institutions from the Houthis’ grip.
–IANS
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