Three children in Yemen were killed and injured on Thursday when shells from the leftover war, which began eight years ago with the help of the Iranian-backed Houthi group, went off.
The boy, whose name was “Saeed Muhammad Abu Asha,” was killed when war-related shells went off while he was grazing his sheep in the “al-Fara” area of the “Rahba” district, which is south of the province of Ma’rib in northeastern Yemen.
“The district of Rahba is one of the places most contaminated by mines and explosive devices,” the human rights observer said. “The people who live in the district suffer greatly from this serious pollution.”
He said that this happened just one day after a civilian was hurt by two separate explosions from a landmine while feeding cattle in the “Al-Matar” area of Al-Qurayshiyya District in Al-Bayda Governorate in central Yemen.
The Yemeni Landmine Monitor says that two children, Shama Ali Muhammad (10 years old) and Abdul Hameed Maher Ali (12 years old), were hurt when a war-era grenade went off in the village of “Al-Shagadir” in the Hajar area of Al-Dhalea Governorate in southern Yemen.
Human rights reports say that the Houthi militia, which is Iran’s armed wing in Yemen, is the only group on both sides of the conflict that is planting mines and other explosives of all shapes and sizes, including “individual devices” that are against international law. This is because Yemen has seen the biggest mine-laying operation since the end of World War II.
Reports from human rights groups say that the Houthi militia has set off more than two million mines, which have killed and hurt more than 20,000 people.
A group of well-known international experts from the UN recently told the UN Security Council that “the Houthis’ systematic and indiscriminate use of landmines, especially along the west coast, poses a constant danger to the civilian population.”
