Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Republic of Yemen signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 1 September 1998. It entered into force on 1 March 1999. National implementation legislation was enacted on 20 April 2005.[1] Yemen submitted its 14^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2012, covering the period 30 March 2011 to 30 March 2012.

Yemen attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh in November–December 2011, where it made statements on mine clearance and victim assistance. Yemen participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings held in Geneva in June 2011, but did not attend those held in May 2012.

Yemen is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Yemen has stated that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It destroyed the last of its known stockpile of 74,000 to 78,000 antipersonnel mines in April 2002.[2] An additional 30,000 mines were found in November 2006 and destroyed in December 2007.[3]

In 2012, Yemen reported that it has retained 3,760 antipersonnel mines for training and research purposes.[4] Yemen has not reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines as agreed by States Parties in 2004.[5]

Use

New information in 2012 revealed that antipersonnel mines were used, possibly by government forces, in the capital city of Sana’a, resulting in casualties in January and March 2012. Additionally, non-state armed groups (NSAGs) are using antipersonnel mines in other locations.

At some point since May 2011, antipersonnel mines were laid inside the building compound of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Jomhorriya Street in the Hassaba neighborhood of Sana’a. This situation came to public attention after one civilian was injured by an antipersonnel mine at the site in March 2012.[6] Armed clashes, the so-called “Hassaba war,” between members of the al-Ahmar tribal militia and government forces began in the area in May 2011.

Further information was provided to Human Rights Watch (HRW) by guards from the government’s Central Security forces present at the site in March 2012. The guards said they knew of two other explosions at the compound and that one of the explosions caused casualties among military personnel in January 2012.[7] The guards also stated that men who identified themselves as members of the government’s elite Republican Guard claimed responsibility for laying mines inside the compound (though the date was unspecified) during the process of transferring control of the compound to the Central Security forces. HRW does not have any further information to corroborate this latter claim.

Deminers from the Army Engineering Corps were seen in a video recording obtained by HRW removing at least 25 antipersonnel mines from the compound on 7 March 2012, including one mine type not encountered before in Yemen, either in stock or laid.[8]

It cannot be conclusively determined which forces used the mines at the compound. Before the conflict, government employees used the ministry building daily. On 23 May 2011, al-Ahmar tribal militia entered the building around midday, causing employees working there to flee, according to local shopkeepers and residents. Al-Ahmar fighters occupied the building for approximately ten days during fighting with government forces, several residents and merchants told HRW. Cadets of the Supreme Military College subsequently occupied the premises. Around 16 October 2011, neighborhood residents said, troops from the Republican Guard assumed control of the recaptured building. In January 2012, Central Security officers began guarding the building compound, they told HRW.[9]

As of October 2012, Yemen had not responded to several requests from the ICBL[10] and HRW[11] for an explanation or clarification of the use of antipersonnel mines (possibly by its own armed forces or security forces) in Sana’a (which is in territory under its jurisdiction and control). Given the gravity of the allegations and the potential that an activity prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty may have occurred, Yemen must clarify the situation to Mine Ban Treaty States Parties. Yemen should immediately investigate whether military or security forces under government control used antipersonnel mines at the Ministry of Industry and Trade building complex in Sana’a city.

Use by non-state armed groups

In 2012, there were credible reports of use of antipersonnel mines by NSAGs in Sa’ada governorate and Abyan governorate.

Since June 2004, the government of Yemen has been fighting rebel forces led by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi in the mountainous northern Sa’daa governorate, which has seen occasional reports and allegations of the use of antipersonnel mines by both sides.[12] After a 2010 ceasefire opened access to the region, it became apparent that the Houthi rebel forces had used mostly, if not exclusively, so-called home-made antipersonnel mines, otherwise known as victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In a February 2010 United States (US) diplomatic cable made public in August 2011, a senior Yemeni government representative expressed concern that the Houthi rebels were retaining mines after they were cleared, rather than turning the devices over to the army for destruction.[13]

In March 2012, Yemen's Ministry of Defense reported new landmine casualties in Hajja governorate, which neighbors Sa’ada governorate and where Houthi rebels have been fighting local Sunni tribes backed by the government.[14] According to a local representative, Houthi rebels planted approximately 3,000 landmines in Kushar and Ahm in Hajja governorate.[15] A representative of the Houthi rebels told media that landmines were used by the Houthi, but described the number of mines reported as “exaggerated.”[16]

In its 2012 Article 7 report, Yemen listed Abyan governorate as newly mine-affected “because of the war that started between the Yemeni army and Al Qaeda groups.”[17] According to media reports in June 2012, the governor's office in Zinjibar (the capital of Abyan governorate) said that engineering teams have removed some landmines from around the city and the nearby city of Jaar. Government forces regained control of both cities in May 2012, a year after they were occupied by Ansar Al-Sharia, an armed organization linked to al Qaeda.[18] Photographs of weapons recovered by deminers from Ansar al-Sharia positions after the withdrawal, which HRW examined in October 2012, included antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, explosive booby-traps, and IEDs.[19]

The Republic of Yemen has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Yemen has not made a public statement about why it has not joined the convention.

Yemen participated in two meetings of the Oslo Process that produced the convention (Lima in May 2007 and Belgrade in October 2007) and expressed its support for work to prohibit cluster munitions.[1] But Yemen did not attend the negotiations of the convention in Dublin in May 2008 or the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[2]

Yemen did not participate in any meetings related to the convention in 2008-2010. In September 2011, a representative from Yemen’s embassy to Lebanon attended the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut as an observer, but did not make any statements.

Yemen is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Yemen is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Yemen is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.[3]

It appears that Yemen stockpiles cluster munitions. Jane’s Information Group reports that KMG-U dispensers that deploy submunitions are in service with the country’s air force.[4] Moldova exported 13 220mm Uragan Multiple Rocket Launch Systems to Yemen in 1994, and Yemen possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[5]

In June 2010, Amnesty International (AI) reported that it appears the United States (US) used at least one ship (or submarine) launched TLAM-D cruise missile, which contains 166 BLU-97 submunitions, to attack a “training camp” in al-Ma’jalah in al-Mahfad district of Abyan governorate of Yemen on 17 December 2009. It said the attack killed 55 people, including 14 alleged members of the targeted “terrorist group,” as well as 14 women and 21 children.[6] Neither the US nor Yemeni governments have publicly responded to the allegations. In December 2010, Wikileaks released a US Department of State cable dated 21 December 2009 that acknowledged the US had a role in the 17 December strike, and said that Yemeni government officials:

…continue to publicly maintain that the operation was conducted entirely by its forces, acknowledging U.S. support strictly in terms of intelligence sharing. Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alimi told the Ambassador on December 20 that any evidence of greater U.S. involvement such as fragments of U.S. munitions found at the sites - could be explained away as equipment purchased from the U.S.[7]

The US has never exported the TLAM-D cruise missile.[8] The extent of any residual contamination from reported cluster munition use is not known.

Contamination and Impact

Yemen is contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) from a series of past conflicts (1962–1969; 1970–1983; and in 1994) but escalating instability and conflict in the last two years has added significant new ERW contamination.

Mines

Mines were laid in border areas between North and South Yemen before they unified in 1990, and again in the 1994 internal conflict.[1] A Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) completed in July 2000 identified mine and ERW suspect hazardous areas (SHAs) covering an estimated 922km² and affecting 592 mine villages across 18 of Yemen’s 21 governorates. Subsequent demining identified a further 10 mined areas estimated to cover a total of some 605,000m² bringing the estimate of total contamination to 923km². Yemen’s Article 5 deadline extension request in 2008 said that 710km² had been released leaving 457 areas covering 213km² to be “addressed.”[2]

However, those estimates have been overtaken by events, leaving the extent of remaining contamination uncertain. Yemen has reported that new mine contamination resulted from the 2010 insurgency in northern Sada’a governorate led by Abdul Malik al-Houthi[3] and the 2011 insurgency around southern Abyan by militants identified as belonging to Ansar al-Sharia, linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.[4] The Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) reported that insurgents in Sada’a governorate had laid homemade mines, later clearing some but missing others.[5] Mines were also reportedly used in the capital Sana’a during the 2011 confrontation between government forces and the First Armored Division.[6] Emergency clearance operations around Abyan in June 2012 encountered heavy mine contamination reported to have caused many casualties.[7]

The UN reported that, by December 2011, 235 areas covering 139.72km² remained to be cleared, not including new contamination in Sada’a and Abyan.[8] However, Yemen’s latest Article 7 report states that 20 of Yemen’s 21 governorates are mine-affected[9] and that 331.55km² remain to be released, 9% more than the previous year’s Article 7 report. This included a total of 61.17km² where work had been suspended and 70.17km² where work was “ongoing.” The report said a further 200.26km² remained to be surveyed or cleared.[10]

Cluster munition remnants

It is not known to what extent Yemen is affected by cluster munition remnants. Amnesty International reported the presence of unexploded BLU-97 submunitions in June 2010 which it alleged originated from a United States (US) cruise missile attack on 17 December 2009 on the community of al-Ma’jalah in the Abyan area in south Yemen.[11]

Other explosive remnants of war

Contamination identified by the LIS (see above) included unexploded ordnance (UXO) as well as mines but the full extent of UXO contamination following recent conflict is not known. An August 2012 funding appeal by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes the presence in Abyan of “new threats from unexploded ordnance, mines and the new and more unpredictable security environment.”[12] In addition to reports of booby-traps and IEDs around Abyan and its main town, Zinjibar, recaptured by government forces in June 2012, media photos also suggest the presence of artillery shells among other items of UXO.[13]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

Yemen established a National Mine Action Committee (NMAC) in June 1998 by prime ministerial decree to formulate policy, allocate resources, and develop a national mine action strategy.[14] NMAC, chaired by the minister of state (a member of the cabinet), brings together representatives of seven concerned ministries.

YEMAC was established in Sana’a in January 1999 as NMAC’s implementing body with responsibility for coordinating all mine action in the country.[15] It is supported by a Regional Executive Mine Action Branch (REMAB), by a National Training Center in Aden (also set up in 1999), and by another REMAB in al-Mukalla (Hadramout governorate) that was added in March 2004. REMABs are responsible for field implementation of the national mine action plan.

In May 1999, UNDP started a program to support YEMAC. In October 2003, the program moved from direct—UN—execution to national execution. UNDP continues to support the program, but there has been no international technical advisor since 2005. Support from the German Society for Technical Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ) enabled the construction of a mine detection dog (MDD) center in Sana’a and training of MDD handlers.[16]

In March 2008, YEMAC updated its strategic mine action plan to cover April 2009 to September 2014, within the extension period it sought in its Article 5 deadline extension request (see, Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty section below).[17]

Land Release

YEMAC did not report what land was released in 2010 or 2011. Its latest Article 7 Report stated that it had released a total of 788 minefields but did not clarify in what period of time or give other details.[18]

Five-year summary of clearance

N/R = Not Reported

Survey in 2011

YEMAC has not reported on the release by technical survey or cancelation by non-technical survey (NTS) in 2011. The area reported cancelled in its Article 7 reports was the same for the year ended 31 March 2012 as for the previous year ended 31 March 2011 at 148.28km².

YEMAC reported it conducted NTS in Abyan after government forces regained control of the area, identifying 22 SHAs covering 19.32km² affected by antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, ERW, and booby-traps.[19]

Mine clearance in 2011

Mine clearance in Yemen is undertaken solely by the Engineering Forces of the Ministry of Defense who are seconded to YEMAC. In its latest Article 7 Report, it said it had 777 deminers and survey team members, as well as 14 “UXO disposal teams,” 12 mine detection dogs and five quality assurance teams.[20]

In the past two years, YEMAC has not reported the results of any demining. Its latest Article 7 report said demining was under way in 45 minefields and that it had “completed” the release of a total of 504.68km²,which is 32.76km² (or 7%) more than it reported as completed the previous year. It added that demining operations had been limited to 12 districts in the governorates of Abb, Al-Dhale’e, Al Mahrah, Amran, Hadhramout, Lahij, Mareeb, and Taiz.[21] YEMAC reported it had started demining in Sada’a governorate in 2010 but stopped in 2011 because of deteriorating security.[22]

In 2012, engineers were deployed to clear large numbers of mines, booby-traps, IEDs, and other ERW in Zinjibar, Lawdar and other parts of Abyan after government forces regained control of most of the governorate in June 2012. The contamination reportedly inflicted heavy civilian casualties and posed a major obstacle to the return of populations displaced by the conflict. YEMAC reported in July that 95 people had died in mine and ERW incidents in Abyan, including five of its own personnel. It said engineers had cleared 1,537 mines in Abyan since the government takeover. Two months later, YEMAC reported to donors that its inquiries had revealed only 16 casualties from mines or UXO. It also reported that since June 2012 it had cleared 72 antipersonnel mines, 35 antivehicle mines, 2,505 items of ERW, and 1,681 booby-traps.[23]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the five year extension granted in 2008), Yemen is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2015.

The extent of Yemen’s progress towards meeting its Article 5 extended deadline is unclear because of contradictory information it has provided. Yemen’s Article 7 report for the year through 31 March 2012 said it had surveyed and cleared 784.6km² of a total suspected area of 923km², indicating the remaining suspect area amounted to 138.4km. However, the area, which the report identified as “ongoing”, “suspended” or “left” as of 31 March 2012, amounted to a total of 331.55km², 28.4km² (9%) more than a year earlier.[24]

Yemen appears to have significant additional mine and UXO contamination as a result of conflict in 2011−2012 but the extent is not known.

Quality management

YEMAC reports that it operates with five quality assurance teams.[25]

Safety of demining personnel

YEMAC said five of its personnel were among mine/ERW casualties in Abyan during operations under way from June 2012 but did not state if they included fatalities or the extent of injuries.[26]

Risk Education

YEMAC coordinates and supervises risk education (RE) with support from UNICEF. Yemen’s latest Article 7 Report said it had established a Mine Awareness Advisory Committee chaired by the deputy minister of information to develop a national campaign and submit it for approval by the NMAC.[27]

YEMAC reported visiting 866 villages to conduct RE training in the year ended 31 March 2012 as part of a nationwide RE program that included training for officials in the ministries of information and education; these ministries in turn provide training for community RE “cells”, as well as for other forms of promotion, such as poster and poetry competitions. YEMAC also said it focused on providing RE to refugees in camps in Sada’a and Hajjah governorates, drawing attention to “new kinds of mines” used by insurgents in those areas. [28]

Danish Demining Group (DDG), with funding of $245,000 from UNICEF and the Norwegian government, worked in cooperation with YEMAC, focusing on preparing child-friendly RE materials dealing with the threat from UXO and landmines. It aimed to provide RE to some 12,500 school children in the Aden area, expanding the program in 2013 to the Abyan area and covering around 33,000 people.[29]

Casualties Overview

In 2011, the Monitor identified 19 casualties from mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW).[1] Of the total, 16 causalities were civilians; most were children (15), making up 94% of civilian casualties, and one was an adult man.[2] There were three casualties among security forces.

This represents a significant decrease from 2010 when 52 casualties were identified, but this figure is the same as in 2009 when 19 casualties were also identified.[3] As in previous years, the Yemen Mine Action Center (YEMAC) did not have access to most districts within the governorate of Sada’a, an area heavily affected by conflict, nor to other parts of the country affected by conflict in 2011.[4] The sharp variation between 2010 and 2011 was due to difficulties in collecting data, given the increasing violence throughout the country, as opposed to a change in the rate of casualties.

Through the end of 2011, there were at least 5,522 mine/ERW casualties identified in Yemen.[5] A Landmine Impact Survey had identified 4,904 casualties through July 2000, of which 2,560 people were killed and 2,344 were injured.[6] In 2010, it was reported in the media that there were 35,000 mine/ERW casualties in Yemen since 1995.[7]

Casualties continued to be recorded in 2012 at a much higher rate than in 2011, though media reports tended to over-report casualties occurring in the midst of the conflict.[8] Based on Monitor analysis of available casualty data, between January and July of 2012 there were believed to be 162 mine/ERW casualties, including 110 children, 42 civilian adults, and 10 casualties among deminers[9] during clearance operations.[10]

This significant increase over the same period in 2011 was, at least in part, attributed to suspected new use of mines in Sana’a in 2011 and in Sada’a and Abyan governorates in 2012. The Monitor was able to confirm casualties in at least two of these areas of suspected new use. A 10-year-old boy was injured by an antipersonnel landmine at the Ministry of Industry building in the Hassaba neighborhood in Sana’a on 4 March 2012, an area of suspected new use.[11] Another 16 mine/ERW casualties were confirmed by YEMAC in Abyan in a period of just three weeks in June and July, in an area where suspected mine use by non-state armed groups was reported.[12]

There was a credible (but unconfirmed) report of a cluster munition strike in Yemen in December 2009 that killed 55 people, including 14 women and 21 children.[13] No other cluster munition casualties have been reported.

Victim Assistance

Yemen is known to have landmine survivors and survivors of other types of ERW. As a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty, Yemen has made a commitment to implementing victim assistance.

As of the December 2011, YEMAC had registered 2,494 mine/ERW survivors.[14]

Victim assistance in 2011

Nearly all victim assistance activities were reduced or suspended in 2011 as a result of increased armed violence in several regions of the country. Most mine/ERW survivors were unable to access services due to heightened insecurity, which restricted movement as well as a lack of service providers and the overall limitations caused by poverty. A lack of female professionals meant that many women in need of services had no access to them.[15]

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2011, YEMAC carried out limited needs assessments of a small number of mine/ERW survivors; medical surveys were carried out for 80 survivors in 56 villages in mine-affected areas. It was projected that survivors from 182 villages would be surveyed during the year, but as in 2010, security concerns prevented victim assistance teams from accessing some regions of the country.[16] YEMAC continued to regularly update casualty information when it recorded information about new mine/ERW incidents, including information about victim assistance services received.[17] However, in 2011 security concerns prevented YEMAC from collecting data in areas of the country where the greatest number of mine/ERW casualties occur.

Victim assistance coordination[18]

No multi-stakeholder victim assistance coordination meetings were held in 2011 as the Victim Assistance Advisory Committee remained inactive. YEMAC reported holding bilateral coordination meetings with the Yemen Association of Landmine Survivors (YALS) to promote survivor inclusion.[19] However, YALS found the coordination process with YEMAC to be weak in 2011.[20]

Yemen provided details of its victim assistance program in its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2011.[21] It did not provide any updates on progress or challenges for victim assistance at the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh in December 2011 or at the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012.

Survivor Inclusion

There was no active planning or monitoring of victim assistance activities in which mine/ERW survivors could participate, though there was some limited coordination between YEMAC and YALS in the implementation of victim assistance.[22] Due to the suspension of victim assistance activities during 2011, including those of YALS, the inclusion of survivors in the implementation of victim assistance was reduced accordingly.[23]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[24]

Government support for medical care was reduced during 2011, while their support for physical rehabilitation and general disability issues was suspended half-way through the year.[25] International organizations, such as the ICRC and Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières) made efforts to increase emergency relief, but planned activities were hampered by security conditions which also prevented access to certain parts of the country.[26] National NGOs, such as YALS, also suspended their activities or could not access many mine/ERW survivors living in areas of the country where violence was ongoing and increasing.[27]

The ICRC continued to provide support to four rehabilitation centers throughout the country, but plans to start construction of a new rehabilitation center in Sa’ada were suspended due to security issues.[28] The Aden Rehabilitation Center improved the quality of prosthetics produced, with two technicians having completed advanced training. However, services to mine/ERW survivors decreased since many were living in areas affected by conflict preventing their access to the center. Increased funding was needed to maintain gender- and age-appropriate services at the center.[29]

YALS, one of the few providers of psychological support for mine survivors, and the only organization providing peer support, suspended its operations in 2011.[30] The Arab Human Rights Foundation (AHRF) continued to provide psychosocial support to mine survivors.[31]

No economic inclusion activities were reported in 2011.YALS had funding to provide support to 40 survivors to start livelihood projects when activities resume in 2012.[32]

The law protects the rights of persons with disabilities, but discrimination remained. No national law mandated accessibility of buildings for persons with disabilities.[33]

Yemen ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 26 March 2009.

Support for Mine Action

Since 2007, the government of Yemen has reported contributing at least US$3.5 million per year toward its own mine action program.[1]

In 2011, Germany, Norway, and the United States (US) contributed a total of $1,976,520 to support mine clearance and victim assistance activities in Yemen. Germany and the US allocated its contribution through UNDP and Norway allocated its funding to the Danish Demining Group (DDG).[2]

International government contributions: 2011[3]

Summary of support in 2007–2011[4]