Yemen, deadly bombs and anti-personnel mines: the children of the country at war since 2015 are in danger of life every day

ROME – The number of children who fell victim to landmines in Yemen increased eight-fold from 2018 to 2022, the organization claims in the report “The deadly legacy of explosive devices for the children of Yemen”. Over the past five years, every three days a child has been killed or injured by explosive devices. The paradox is that the number of incidents increased during the 2022 truce, thus highlighting how serious the legacy of the conflict is in the country.

The statistics. The study of Save the Children analyzed data from January 2018 to November 2022. If in 2018 there was an accident every five days, in 2022 there is a victim every two days. This means that the country is peppered with explosive remnants of war and anti-personnel mines that children run the risk of encountering while playing, while collecting wood to light a fire or while going to get drinking water. In other words, while they live. And the worst thing is that they have no training or experience to identify bombs and avoid them. Conversely, from 2018 to today, the risks deriving directly from armed conflict in the form of airstrikes, bombings or crossfire have decreased.

History. Maha is a ten-year-old girl who stepped on an anti-personnel mine last October while collecting wood to take home with her 16-year-old sister Maya. Although she was rushed to the hospital and urgently operated on, she Maha lost her left eye and her right hand was amputated. Sister Maya, on the other hand, had her body covered in splinters and deep wounds on both legs. “If I had to draw a drawing about war, I would depict people with no hands and no legs, wounded eyes, people walking on crutches,” Maha told Save the Children.

The risk of going home. The dossier also highlights the fact that the percentage of children injured and killed by explosive devices and anti-personnel landmines has increased during the six-month ceasefire brokered by the United Nations last year. In fact, people have returned to their homes in areas that had been real battlefields and have never been reclaimed, with all the associated risks.

The lack of care. With the health care system on the brink of collapse and few trained rehabilitation specialists, children injured by lethal weapons have no chance of receiving the long-term care they need to regain mobility, return to school and live. Those most at risk are those living in refugee camps: of the 194 child victims of landmines treated by Save the Children between 2020 and 2022, almost one in four is internally displaced.

The most serious consequences. The most common childhood injuries treated by Save the Children they include amputation of the upper limbs, lower limbs, hands, as well as loss of vision and hearing. In some cases, the accidents have led to permanent disability due to shrapnel and spinal injuries. But in addition to physical injuries, children suffer serious psychological problems such as sleep disturbances, fear and anxiety.

A war story. Yemen is contaminated by explosive devices, which are a legacy of the armed conflicts that erupted in the country between 1962 and 1969 and between 1970 and 1983 and then again from the subsequent clashes of 1994. This history of wars, together with that started in March 2015, have increased threats to everyone, but especially to children. Contamination from explosive devices covers an area of ​​more than one hundred square kilometers. “We cannot stand by as children’s lives are torn apart by these horrific weapons,” said Ashfaq Ahmad, Director of Save the Children in Yemen. “The situation in the country is truly awful. All parties to the conflict must prioritize the protection of the youngest and ensure that they are not exposed to the risks of landmines and other explosive devices.”

The reasons for such a long and frightening conflict. Yemen – beyond the humanitarian narrative that is made of it – has great strategic importance, despite being the poorest country in the Middle East. After all, it is enough to look at the map to understand how the jihadist groups, Al Qaeda above all, have had easy access and how the USA and Saudi Arabia together are there to protect their interests, as opposed to the geostrategic ones of the ‘Iran, which supports the Houti rebels, Shiites. Yemen is located at the farthest point of the Arabian Peninsula and millions of tons of oil and millions of tons of goods pass before its eyes every day. The framework of the conflict is therefore that of the blockade of the Gulf monarchies against Iran, which has its military garrison in Yemen, in fact, with the Houti, protagonists of a decade of political and economic crisis and seven years of conflict with the Saudi-led coalition. The result has been, and is, the total paralysis of health care and other social services, resulting in epidemics of cholera and other diseases, as well as widespread hunger and malnutrition.