En stribe af væbnede konflikter gennem de seneste 50 år har efterladt store mængder landminer og ueksploderet ammunition på og i jorden i Yemen. Arbejdet med at fjerne disse dræbende minder om krig er i gang, men der mangler penge til indsatsen.
Thirteen-year-old Nakhlah Ramadhan was tending sheep with her younger sister Fatima on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, when she stepped on a landmine. She was killed instantly; Fatima was seriously injured.
In neighbouring Bani Al-Harith District, Safa’a Luqman and her younger brother, Mohamed, found what they thought was a toy as they were playing outside their home in Bani Jormooz village. The object—a piece of unexploded ordnance—suddenly exploded, permanently disabling Safa’a and blinding Mohamed.
Nakhlah, Safa’a and Mohamed are just three of the many children who have been killed or maimed by landmines or unexploded ordnance in Yemen in recent years. Since the most recent conflict started in July 2011, 71 children have been killed or maimed by these remnants of war, according to a report of the UN Secretary-General.
A tragic legacy of conflict
Landmines have plagued the people of Yemen for decades. In the 1960s, they were laid along the border that separated the north and south of the country, and they were a tragic feature of tensions throughout the 1990s.
More recently, Government and militant forces have been accused of using landmines between 2004 and 2011 in conflicts in Sa’ada Governorate in the north and Abyan Governorate in the south.
In 2011 and 2012, antipersonnel mines were reportedly also used in and around Sana’a, and in March 2012, Yemen’s Ministry of Defense reported landmine casualties in Hajjah Governorate on the country’s north-west coast.
Mine clearing begins, but funding is short
Læs hele artiklen: http://www.unocha.org/top-stories/all-stories/yemen-children-tormented-landmines-and-unexploded-ordnance
Download rapporten ”Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Yemen”: http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/report-secretary-general-children-and-armed-conflict-yemen-s2013383
