For Imad and his sister Alia, life will never be the same after their father was killed by a landmine and they had to leave their endangered home in Yemen’s western Hodeida province. With their house surrounded by the deadly munitions, the two children and their mother, left Al-Dunain village and headed for shelter at the Al-Waara camp in the Khokha district, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the town of Hays. Withdrawing Iran-backed Huthi rebels had dotted the area with mines, their mother Fethiyeh Fartout said. And it was while her husband made his way to market that he was killed on a road “riddled with landmines”. “The Huthis then told us to either leave the house or risk being killed,” she told AFP. The family is just one of millions caught up in a dragging war in which Huthi rebels have been fighting for more than three years against the Yemeni government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. Rights groups say both sides have committed potential war crimes in the conflict which has killed an estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians. While the Saudi-led coalition has come under fire for air raids that have killed civilians, including children, in rebel-held areas, the Huthis have been accused of widespread and indiscriminate use of landmines.- ‘Long-term threat’ – Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty, which came into force in 1999, and aims to eliminate landmines and clear up vast tracts of polluted land.
Foto-Fonte: afp.com
Biography of a Bomb
