Over 352,000 mines, shells collected, destroyed over 3 years of war on Yemen: Official

SANAA, April 2 (YPA) – More than 352,332 of mines, shells and war remnants have been collected and destroyed during three years of the aggression war on Yemen in several provinces.

An area of 8,193,000 square meters has been purged of landmines and relics of the war in different districts of Yemeni provinces, said Brigadier General Ali Abdullah Sofra, vice-chairman of the national mine action committee and director of the executive center for mine action, in an exclusive statement to Yemen Press Agency in conjunction with the International Day for Mine Awareness.

The total number of people benefiting from the mine risk education exceeded over 3,912,000 people during the same period, Sofra added.

He said that the executive center implemented an emergency plan with an international support to lift remnants of wars, including mines, shells and cluster bombs, which present a real risk and threat to the society in the present and future, in provinces of Sanaa, Ibb, Dhamar, Saada, Hajjah, Taiz and Amran.

While world celebrates the International Day for Mine Awareness and the country suffers for the fourth year of a large amount of remnants of unexploded cluster bombs, shells and mines.

Yemen has been contaminated by landmines in several stages since 1962 to 1994, Sofra said.

He referred that a preliminary survey was carried out in 2000, and the results showed contaminated areas of 922 million square meters.

During successive conflicts the contaminated area increased to 1 billion and 12 million square meters distributed over 1491 areas, 84% of which has been cleared by the center, Sofra added.

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