Large amounts of leftover explosive ordnance across Yemen constant threat to civilians

Large amounts of leftover explosive ordnance across Yemen constant threat to civilians

The remnants of Saudi-led coalition weapons, mines and cluster bombs are still spread in most areas of Yemen which over the eight years of the war on Yemen had left numbers of victims, mostly children and women.

On Thursday, a civilian was killed and another was injured in as a result of the explosion of a body from remnants of the coalition weapons in Al-Hali district of Hodeidah province, according to a security source.

In Saada province, a child and her mother were injured on Thursday as a result of an explosion of a projectile left over by the coalition in the border district of Baqem in Saada province.

The Executive Center for Mine Action revealed, in its annual report in mid-January, that the total victims of the remnants of various coalition weapons during the year 2022 amounted to 734, including 490 injured in 15 provinces.

The center explained that the statistics included the death and injury of 64 women, as well as the death of 54 children and the injury of 177 others.

The report indicated that the province of Hodeidah recorded the largest number of victims by the coalition weapons remnants, with 137 dead, most of them children, and 218 wounded.

According to the center’s report, 20,252 pieces of mines, cluster bombs and remnants of war were discovered and collected in several provinces, and 500 war objects were destroyed at once.

The report stated that more than three million square meters of land contaminated with mines and cluster bombs were surveyed and cleared recently in Hodeidah, while the center’s field teams carried out the largest destruction operation of more than 9,700 pieces that included mines, cluster bombs and other remnants that were collected and removed from the districts of Al-Hali and Al-Hawk in the province.