\n For Imad and his sister Alia, life will never be the same after their father was killed by a landmine and they had to leave their endangered home in Yemen's western Hodeida province.\n<\/p>\n
\n With their house surrounded by the deadly munitions, the two children and their mother, left Al-Dunain village and headed for shelter at the Al-Waara camp in the Khokha district, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the town of Hays.\n<\/p>\n
\n Withdrawing Iran-backed Huthi rebels had dotted the area with mines, their mother Fethiyeh Fartout said.\n<\/p>\n
\n And it was while her husband made his way to market that he was killed on a road \"riddled with landmines\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Huthis then told us to either leave the house or risk being killed,\" she told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n The family is just one of millions caught up in a dragging war in which Huthi rebels have been fighting for more than three years against the Yemeni government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rights groups say both sides have committed potential war crimes in the conflict which has killed an estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians.\n<\/p>\n
\n While the Saudi-led coalition has come under fire for air raids that have killed civilians, including children, in rebel-held areas, the Huthis have been accused of widespread and indiscriminate use of landmines.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Long-term threat' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty, which came into force in 1999, and aims to eliminate landmines and clear up vast tracts of polluted land.\n<\/p>\n
\n And indiscriminate use of landmines is deemed a war crime by international bodies.\n<\/p>\n
\n While the Huthi rebels have made no media comments about landmines, in a letter to Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2017 the rebel-controlled foreign ministry in Sanaa denied using landmines or having stockpiles, adding they were \"vigilant in abiding by commitments\" under the treaty.\n<\/p>\n
\n But for Fartout and her children there is no way to return home, even if they tried, said her father Jamal Fartout.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Huthis planted landmines everywhere, and their explosives destroyed the roads,\" he told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"All the roads leading back to our home are lined with explosives.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n HRW said in June that landmines in Yemen were hindering aid access and entrapping people.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Huthi forces have repeatedly laid antipersonnel, anti-vehicle and improvised mines as they withdrew from areas in Aden, Taez, Marib and, more recently, along Yemen's western coast,\" the HRW said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Landmines \"will pose a threat to civilians long after the conflict ends,\" it warned.\n<\/p>\n
\n In July, the Washington Institute said that, while landmines have plagued Yemen for decades amid different conflicts, the Huthis are using them today \"at an astonishingly high rate.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n While exact numbers are \"notoriously difficult to verify\", the institute said one \"Yemeni de-mining official claims the Huthis have laid 500,000 mines since 2015\" while de-mining teams \"have reportedly removed 300,000 landmines\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The non-governmental Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor recorded more than 2,100 casualties in Yemen from landmines in 2016.\n<\/p>\n
\n - \"Where can we go\" -\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I asked the Huthis, 'where can we go when the breadwinner of the family was killed by a landmine?',\" Fartout said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hundreds of people now live in make-shift tents in Al-Waara -- partly funded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a key player in the Saudi-led coalition.\n<\/p>\n
\n While dozens of children, some barefoot, run around the camp, one boy sits in a wheelchair -- his leg in a cast. He, too, was a victim of a landmine.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), sustained fighting in Hays has killed civilians, destroyed infrastructure and driven mass displacement for more than 10 months.\n<\/p>\n
\n By March 2018, an estimated 12,000 people had been displaced from the districts of Hays and Al-Jarahi, some 25 kilometres from Hays.\n<\/p>\n
\n In June, Saudi Arabia launched a new project for landmine clearance in Yemen, but \"landmines will remain a formidable challenge in the postwar era,\" the Washington Institute added.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Facing famine -\n<\/p>\n
\n The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, accuses Iran of arming the Huthis with explosives and missiles.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since 2015, some 10,000 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed, but humanitarian officials say the real figures are likely much higher.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yemen has long been the Arab world's most impoverished country. With millions facing starvation, the Fartout family are now among the 22 million people -- three quarters of the population -- in need of food aid.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) delivers food and aid to the Al-Waara camp approximately every three weeks, said Saeed al-Kaabi, director of UAE's humanitarian operations in Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n Each tent receives a package of food, including rice, pasta, beans, tuna, salt and sugar, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the United Nations has warned aid agencies are losing the fight against famine and some 3.5 million people may soon be added the eight million Yemenis already facing starvation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Imad and his sister Alia, life will never be the same after their father was killed by a landmine and they had to leave their endangered home in Yemen's western Hodeida province. With their house surrounded by the deadly munitions, the two children and their mother, left Al-Dunain village and headed for shelter at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-39076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n