Policy

The Republic of Yemen signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 1 September 1998. The treaty entered into force for the country on 1 March 1999.

Yemen enacted national legislation to enforce implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty on 20 April 2005.[1] It last referred to Presidential Law No. 25 in its Article 7 transparency report for the Mine Ban Treaty submitted in 2007.[2]

Yemen submitted an annual transparency report in 2022.[3] It previously submitted reports in 2019–2021, 2017, and each year prior to 2014 after joining the treaty. Yemen has participated in all four of the Mine Ban Treaty’s review conferences. Yemen has also attended every Meeting of States Parties, most recently attending the Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually in November 2021, where it assured that the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) remained committed to landmine clearance despite security and humanitarian challenges.[4]

In November 2021, Yemen told States Parties that the ongoing conflict, which began with a militia coup against the government in 2014, continues to restrict access to mined areas.[5] In 2022, Yemen requested an extension of an additional five years to extend its mine clearance deadline under Article 5, citing the difficult circumstances faced by the country.[6]

Yemen is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions or the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Yemen has stated that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel landmines.

Yemen has destroyed approximately 108,000 antipersonnel mines from its stocks, in total. In April 2002, it reported having destroyed 74,000–78,000 stockpiled antipersonnel mines.[7] An additional 30,000 mines found in November 2006 were then destroyed in December 2007.[8] Yemen reported in April 2017 that “there are no stockpiled anti-personnel mines found after the last 30,000 mines found and destroyed in 2006.”[9]

In 2017, Yemen reported retaining 3,760 antipersonnel landmines of four types, for training and research purposes. It has declared the same number retained since 2008.[10] Yemen’s Article 7 report for calendar year 2018 did not provide an update on mines retained. Yemen reported in its Article 7 reports for 2019–2021 that “at any given time there are a number of AP [antipersonnel] mines (and AP mines of an improvised nature) held at YEMAC storage locations whilst awaiting destruction…caused by the lack of access to explosives or other means to destroy items in place…The numbers and types vary and are kept only for so long as it takes to organise their destruction.”[11] Yemen has never reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as was agreed by States Parties in 2004.[12]

At least five types of antipersonnel mines, produced in the 1980s, have been used in Yemen since 2013. None were among the four mine types that Yemen has reported stockpiling in the past (PP-Mi-SR, PMD-6, PMN, and POMZ-2), including for the training of clearance personnel.

Types of antipersonnel mines used in Yemen since 2013

Evidence of further use of antipersonnel mines in 2016 suggests either that the 2002 declaration to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General on completion of stockpile destruction was incorrect, or that these mines were acquired after 2002. In a September 2016 letter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sanaa, controlled by the Houthis and the General People’s Congress (GPC), alleged that individuals had smuggled weapons, including landmines, into Yemen in recent years, noting that the government had not been able to control its land or sea borders due to instability and fighting.[13] In April 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that the Sanaa-based Ministry of Defense stockpiles antipersonnel mines.[14]

Production of landmines by Houthi forces

In September 2018, Conflict Armament Research reported that Houthi forces were “mass producing” landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and associated triggering devices for victim-activation.[15] This production included the standardization and production of explosive charges, pressure-plates, and passive infrared sensors. Based on field missions in 2017–2018, Conflict Armament Research (CAR) confirmed the use of PMN, PPM-2, and GLD-150A antipersonnel mines; TM-57, PRB-M3, and VS-1.6 antivehicle mines; and improvised mine types including directional fragmentation charges.[16] CAR reported that several types of improvised mines appeared to be mass-produced by Houthi forces, and were used in Aden, Mokah, and other areas on the west coast.[17]

Houthi “rock mines,” or landmines disguised as stones and boulders, discovered during clearance operations in Yemen in 2022 indicate that Houthi forces are producing landmines using knowledge imported by Hezbollah-affiliated groups in the region. Similar mine types were previously used in southern Lebanon.[18]

An Al-Amaliqa Brigades video posted on social media in January 2022 allegedly showed Houthi confiscated UN relief boxes containing Claymore-type mines, Hybrid PMN/PPM-2 blast mines, and PMD-6 type box mines in the Harid district of Ma’rib.[19]

Use

The Monitor was unable to confirm any allegations of new use of antipersonnel mines during the period November 2021–September 2022. Previously, antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, victim-activated improvised mines, and other IEDs were used by Houthi-associated forces in Yemen in early 2019, primarily in battles on the west coast near the port of Hodeida. According to unconfirmed figures reported by YEMAC, the Yemeni Army removed over 300,000 Houthi-laid landmines between 2016 and 2018.[20] During the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings in June 2022, YEMAC stated that during 2020–2021, it cleared a total of 3,064 antipersonnel mines and 4,591 explosive devices planted by Houthi militias in residential areas and along roads.[21]

The Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, convened by the Human Rights Council, reported in September 2019 that “[T]he use of landmines, both anti-personnel and anti-vehicle, by the Houthis has resulted in significant harm to civilians.” The report stated that the Group of Eminent Experts had “investigated reports of civilian casualties caused by antipersonnel and anti-vehicle landmines allegedly emplaced by Houthi fighters in Aden, Al Hudaydah, Lahij and Ta’izz governorates, and examined further reports of civilian casualties from landmines in Abyan, al-Dhale’e, Al-Bayda, Al-Jawf, Hajjah, Ibb, Ma’rib, Sana’a, Sa’dah and Shabwah governorates. It confirmed civilian casualties from anti-personnel landmines verified as having been emplaced by Houthi fighters in incidents it investigated in Aden, Al-Hudaydah, Lahij and Ta’izz governorates.”[22]

In May 2022, in response to the increase in civilian casualties due to landmines, the United Nations Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) called on the international community to support mine action in Yemen with technical assistance and coordination of demining activities.[23]

In July 2022, the Special Envoy for Yemen briefed the Security Council on the newly established truce between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels, and cited mines as a continued source of conflict-related civilian casualties.[24] Previously, in April 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that landmines emplaced by Houthi forces had killed at least 140 civilians since 2018. Yet HRW was unable to confirm when the mines were placed.[25] In November 2018, employees at Hodeidah Port accused Houthi forces of placing mines in the area around the port’s entrances.[26]

There is no evidence to suggest that members of the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition have used landmines in Yemen.

On 2 April 2017, Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is controlled by the Houthis and the GPC, denied that Houthi-Saleh forces had used antipersonnel mines, stating that the Sanaa-based authorities were “vigilant in abiding by [their] commitments” under the Mine Ban Treaty.[27] They also accused “armed factions and terrorist groups” of producing and using improvised landmines in Yemen. The ministry added that after the conflict ends, the Sanaa-based authorities are prepared to establish a committee to investigate landmine use in Taizz; to investigate any new information or documentation on the use of antipersonnel mines elsewhere; and to “take the necessary steps in accordance with national laws and regulations and its international obligations.”[28]

Previous use

The first confirmed use of antipersonnel mines by a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty occurred in Yemen in 2011–2012 at Bani Jarmooz, north of Sanaa, during the uprising that led to the ousting of then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh.[29] According to witness testimony and other evidence, GYATA-64, PMN-1, and PMD-6 antipersonnel landmines were emplaced around camps of the government’s Republican Guard at Bani Jarmooz in late 2011.[30]

In November 2013, the office of Yemen’s prime minister admitted that a “violation” of the Mine Ban Treaty occurred in 2011.[31] Yemen provided States Parties with an interim report on 29 March 2014, detailing plans to clear the mines laid at Bani Jarmooz.[32] In June 2014, it informed States Parties that the Military Prosecutor’s Office had opened an investigation to identify those responsible for the mine use at Bani Jarmooz.[33] In mid-2014, Houthi forces seized control of Bani Jarmooz.

The Mine Ban Treaty’s Committee on Cooperative Compliance has engaged with Yemen on the 2011–2012 use at Bani Jarmooz. In October 2016, the committee expressed appreciation for “the willingness of Yemen to engage in a continued dialogue, share information and clarify the situation with regard to the mentioned allegations.”[34] The committee concluded that “it would welcome updated information on efforts by the government of Yemen to carry out an investigation of the use of mines and any additional information on the use of mines within areas under its jurisdiction or control.”