The Yemen Mine Observatory warned on Sunday, 11 October 2026, of rising risks threatening civilians in extensive rural areas of Taiz governorate, south-western Yemen, as the Houthi group intensified the laying of landmines in recent days. The warning followed the death of a 12-year-old boy in a mine explosion while he was herding livestock.
Warning over mines and explosive devices in Taiz countryside
The observatory said disguised mines and explosive devices had been deployed in mountainous areas, side roads and displaced people’s homes, warning that they posed a direct threat to residents, particularly livestock herders and people using rural roads for their daily journeys, and could lead to more civilian casualties.
The observatory called on the Houthi group to immediately stop these practices, remove the mines that had been laid and defuse the explosive devices spread across the Taiz countryside. It also urged rural residents to exercise caution and raise children’s awareness of the dangers of approaching or touching suspicious objects, to prevent further casualties.
The warning came after the observatory announced in recent hours that 12-year-old Shuaib Ali Thabet had been killed in a landmine explosion that it said had been planted by the Houthi group in Al-Udhair village, in Jabal Habashi district. The child was herding livestock when the explosion occurred, in an incident the observatory described as part of the continuing threat posed by landmines to civilian lives in the governorate’s rural areas.
Masam Project announces weekly clearance figures
Separately, the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance in Yemen, known as Masam, announced that its field teams had removed about 1.3 thousand explosive items from war remnants during the past week, in operations covering nine Yemeni governorates. The project’s operations room said in a press statement issued on Sunday that the teams had removed 1,291 mines, items of unexploded ordnance and explosive devices between 3 and 9 October 2026.
Explosive contamination threatens residents and civilian infrastructure
The project said explosive contamination continued to threaten local communities, agricultural activity, civilian infrastructure and roads. According to the Masam operations room, the total number of items removed by the project’s teams since the beginning of October had risen to 2,547, including 2,454 items of unexploded ordnance, 67 anti-tank mines, 24 anti-personnel mines and two explosive devices.
The area of land made safe during the same period reached 366,882 square metres. The statement said that since beginning work in Midi district, Hajjah governorate, the project’s teams had removed 13,292 mines, items of unexploded ordnance and explosive devices. They had also cleared 4,974,123 square metres of land as part of operations to remove war remnants and make areas safe for residents.
Project director Osama al-Qusaibi said Masam teams had, from the launch of their work in late June 2018 until 9 October this year, removed more than 596,000 mines, items of unexploded ordnance and explosive devices. He added that the total area cleared by the teams had reached 86,179,144 square metres of land in areas under the control of the recognised Yemeni government.
The Iranian-backed Houthi group is accused of being the only party in the Yemen conflict that lays internationally prohibited mines and of contaminating Yemeni land with more than two million mines. According to the United Nations, this figure represents the highest rate of mine-laying since the Second World War.
