Int’l Report: Houthi Landmines Continue to Claim Lives, Livelihoods

Yemenis injured in a mine explosion. Photo: Mines In Yemen
Yemenis injured in a mine explosion. Photo: Mines In Yemen
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Int’l Report: Houthi Landmines Continue to Claim Lives, Livelihoods

Yemenis injured in a mine explosion. Photo: Mines In Yemen
Yemenis injured in a mine explosion. Photo: Mines In Yemen

Landmines laid by Houthi militias in Yemen continue to kill and cause serious injuries to civilians in areas where active hostilities have ceased and are preventing farmers from accessing their land, Human Rights Watch said this week.

“Houthi forces flouted the landmine ban for years and Yemeni civilians are paying the price as these weapons kill and wound indiscriminately,” said Human Rights Watch. “There is an urgent need to step up clearance of landmines to save lives, prevent unnecessary suffering, and ensure people can safely access their homes and livelihoods.”

The presence of uncleared landmines has had a devastating impact on residents of al-Shaqb, a village in Sabir Al-Mawadim district on the mountainous outskirts of Taizz city. Out of a few thousand residents—there has been no census since 2004—28 have been injured and six killed by landmines in the years immediately following a 2015 siege of Taizz and the surrounding areas.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited al-Shaqb in April 2024 and interviewed seven residents, including four landmine survivors, two people whose family members were killed by landmines, and al-Shaqb’s community leader. All four survivors have a permanent disability from their injuries. Everyone interviewed had been displaced from their homes to a nearby village.

Al-Shaqb is located in a valley between two mountain peaks, one controlled by the internationally-recognized Yemeni government (Mazaal Peak) and the other controlled by Houthi armed forces (Al-Saleheen Peak). While al-Shaqb is on a front line, most active fighting ceased several years ago, though snipers remain in the area and sporadically shoot at and sometimes kill civilians. Most recently, on March 23, residents said a Houthi sniper shot and seriously injured a child who was coming home from school.

Most of al-Shaqb’s residents, many of whom are farmers or herders, were displaced from their land earlier in the conflict. According to al-Shaqb's community leader, over 257 families have been displaced. With the decrease in active fighting in the past few years, several residents trying to return to their homes, tend to agricultural land, or graze their livestock have been killed or seriously injured by antipersonnel mines, and their animals have also been killed. Many of those injured have a permanent disability.

Several residents said that starting in 2018, Houthi forces began entering their land at night to place landmines in and around their homes and farmland.

One man interviewed said he was displaced from his home in 2016 due to the fighting. In August 2022, with the fighting reduced, he returned home to retrieve some wheat stored in his house. He stepped on what he said was a yellow bottle in front of the front door and the bottle exploded. He lost several fingers in the blast, which severely injured his leg, other body parts, and his eyes, leaving him with a permanent disability and scarring.

The landmines have also made it more difficult for villagers to feed themselves and maintain their incomes. According to the World Food Programme, as of February 2024, 64 percent of Taiz governorate’s population do not have sufficient food, and Taiz is one of four governorates in Yemen facing “high risk and deteriorating” food insecurity.

One woman interviewed said that a landmine killed her father when he returned to his farm in February 2021. She said that even though the farm was on the front line, her father and other agricultural workers continued to go there to farm because it was their source of income and that there were “only snipers” in the area. “He used to go to the valley every day to farm, and he had no idea there were landmines there,” she said.

Abdullah, a 35-year-old man, lost both his legs to a landmine in June 2022, when he took his goats to graze at a farm in the area. “I used to feed my goats in the same farm every two or three days,” he said. “It was my land and nobody lived there. My life became very difficult after the incident. I used to work as a driver and in other jobs, but I'm not working anymore, just sitting in the house.”



US Military Shows Reporters Pier Project in Gaza as It Takes Another Stab at Aid Delivery 

An American boat carrying American soldiers and journalist sails near the Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Gaza coast, June 25, 2024. (Reuters)
An American boat carrying American soldiers and journalist sails near the Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Gaza coast, June 25, 2024. (Reuters)
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US Military Shows Reporters Pier Project in Gaza as It Takes Another Stab at Aid Delivery 

An American boat carrying American soldiers and journalist sails near the Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Gaza coast, June 25, 2024. (Reuters)
An American boat carrying American soldiers and journalist sails near the Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver aid, off the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Gaza coast, June 25, 2024. (Reuters)

With US soldiers within shouting distance of Gaza's bombed-out coast, the American military is taking another stab at delivering aid to hungry Palestinians by sea.

After several fits and starts, a $230 million pier is up and running again. The US military invited reporters for a tour of it on Tuesday, marking the first time international media has witnessed its operations firsthand.

International journalists have not been allowed to enter Gaza independently since the Israel-Hamas war began Oct. 7.

The project, which first launched in mid-May, resumed operations last week after a recent pause due to rough seas.

As journalists looked on Tuesday, US soldiers with machine guns directed the pier's operations. US vessels carrying trucks loaded with humanitarian aid docked at the pier.

Israeli and Cypriot drivers drove the trucks off the vessels and headed down the 400-meter (437-yard) causeway to the beach, where they unloaded pallets of aid.

The trucks then returned to the vessels to be ferried to large cargo ships and reloaded. The cargo ships travel across the Mediterranean Sea from Cyprus.

Col. Samuel Miller, the commander of a joint task force, US Army 7th Transportation Brigade, said the vessels can ferry aid to the pier at least five times a day.

“Our mission out here is to receive those humanitarian assistance pallets offshore from a larger vessel onto that floating pier,” he said, shouting over waves crashing against the pier. “Over time, we are learning organization and we've gotten better.”

The floating pier was anchored back on Gaza’s shoreline on June 19 after heavy seas and high winds led the military to disconnect it from the beach. In May, similar conditions forced a two-week pause in operations after the pier broke apart and four US Army vessels ran aground, injuring three service members, one critically.

Since coming back online, the pier has been delivering hundreds of pallets of aid a day to the shore, Miller said.

From the pier, Associated Press journalists could see aid piling up against a backdrop of near-total destruction. Israeli army vehicles slowly moved between blown-out buildings along the coast. Tents stood on beaches in the distance.

The US military said about 6,200 metric tons (6,800 tons) of aid have so far been delivered from the project to Gaza’s shore.

While aid from the pier is reaching the beach, it's still difficult to get it to Palestinians in Gaza. The UN World Food Program has suspended aid delivery from the pier due to security concerns after the Israeli military appeared to use the area in a June 8 hostage rescue. Lawlessness around the pier, with hungry Palestinians seizing aid off trucks headed to delivery zones, also is a major concern.

The US launched the project to bring relief to Gaza, where Israel’s military offensive against Hamas has displaced over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people and unleashed a humanitarian disaster. International officials say hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine.

UN and other international aid officials have voiced skepticism over the pier, saying its effectiveness is limited and it is no substitute for Israeli-controlled land crossings into the territory.

UN officials told the AP on Tuesday that they are considering suspending all aid operations across Gaza unless steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers. That would plunge Gaza into an even deeper humanitarian catastrophe.

Palestinians in Gaza are heavily reliant on UN aid, which has only trickled into the territory since Israel's incursion in early May into Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, shut down a major land crossing and slowed deliveries from another major crossing.

Still, the soldiers operating the pier Tuesday were hopeful.

“I talk to my sailors on a daily basis,” said US Navy Capt. Joel Stewart. “They understand that our aid is necessary for the people of Gaza that are suffering under the conditions of war.”