SANA’A, Aug. 26-- The National
Committee for Landmines, in cooperation with the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) announced on Monday at a conference that the city of Sana’a as
well as Aden, Dhamar, Al-Mahweet, Raima and Al-Mahra governorates are landmine free.
Since 1999, the country has destroyed
about 300,000 landmines and 1,838 square km. in governorates nationwide have
been cleared of landmines, said Ali Al-Qaderi, the director of the Demining
Center, which is a part of the National Committee for Landmines.
The National Committee for Landmines
estimates that since 1999, indiscriminately-placed landmines have killed almost
4,000 people, including 504 children, nationwide.
But in recent years cleared areas have
become epicenters for landmines. The governorate of Abyan prior to 2011 had
been declared landmine free. “The war against Al-Qaeda [in the Arabian
Peninsula] and the 2011 political crisis has delayed this announcement for
several years,” Al-Qderi said. “Landmines claimed 750 victims this year.”
Because of the area’s concentration of
landmines, the National Committee’s largest teams have been sent to the area.
For the next three
months, teams will also be focusing on areas of Sa’ada where wars between
Houthis, a group of Zaidi Shiites insurgents, and the government left landmines.
Rosemary Willey-Al’Sanah, the Conflict
Prevention and Early Recovery Advisor at UNDP described how tricky demining
work can be because they cannot do it while conflicts are still going on and
must wait until fighting has ceased, to protect their teams. Part of the aid
money that has been pledged to Yemen by international donors over the past few
years is being allocated for demining projects, Mohammed Hassen, the UNDP
deputy country director of operations said. He says a concern of UNDP’s is that
they are unable to implement many of their aid projects in areas until its been
cleared of mines.
Yemen signed an international treaty
to ban the use of personal landmines in 1998. A year later, the National
Committee for Landmines and the Mine Action Center were established to remove
the explosive devices and provide awareness about the risk of landmines.
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