Casualties and Victim Assistance

Summary findings

·         Implementation of the national victim assistance plan was included in the Republic of Yemen’s 2013 budget for the first time on the orders of the office of the Prime Minister

·         Survivors were not included in the coordination or monitoring of victim assistance in 2012

·         Government assistance remained limited to medical care and physical rehabilitation rather than addressing all victim’s needs through economic and psychosocial inclusion

Victim assistance commitments

Yemen is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW) who are in need. Yemen has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Casualties Overview

In 2012, the Monitor identified 263 casualties from mines and ERW from Yemen Mine Action Center (YEMAC) casualty data and other sources.[1] As in previous years, YEMAC only had access to casualty data from government-controlled parts of the country.[2] Casualty data from other parts of the country was collected through media reports and NGOs.[3]

The vast majority of casualties, 92% (242) were civilians.[4] There were 19 casualties among deminers; 10 of these occurred between January and July 2012 as deminers cleared areas where there had been recent fighting in Abyan. Following these casualties, YEMAC ceased clearance in this area until deminers received further training. Another five deminer casualties occurred in a single accident in October when an item of ERW that had been removed for disposal exploded while being transported.[5]

There were 104 child casualties, representing 50% of the total civilian casualties for which the age was known.[6] At least 77 of these were boys; there were 10 casualties among girls.[7] While men made up the majority of adult casualties, at least three casualties were women. Three Ethiopian nationals were injured in a single incident in Hajjah governorate while attempting to cross the border with Saudi Arabia.[8]

The number of casualties recorded in 2012 was the highest annual number recorded by the Monitor for Yemen since research began in 1999. It was many times higher than the 19 recorded in 2011 or the 52 identified in 2010.[9] This significant increase was due to the increased population movement immediately after fighting subsided in early 2012.[10]

It was also, at least in part, attributed to suspected new use of mines in the governorates of Sana’a, Sa’daa, Hajjah and Abyan in 2011–2012. The Monitor was able to confirm casualties in at least three 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 landmine 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 (NSAGs) was reported.[12] In 2012, 124 casualties were reported in Hajjah , most of which were recorded through field interviews by the Wethaq Foundation for Civil Orientation, a national human rights organization.[13]

Through the end of 2012, there were at least 5,785 mine/ERW casualties identified in Yemen.[14] A Landmine Impact Survey had identified 4,904 casualties through July 2000, of which 2,560 people were killed and 2,344 were injured.[15] In 2010, it was reported in the media that there were 35,000 mine/ERW casualties in Yemen since 1995.[16]

Cluster munition casualties

A cluster munition strike in Yemen in December 2009 was reported to have killed 55 people, including 14 women and 21 children.[17] No confirmed cluster munition remnants casualties have been reported.[18]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 2,789 survivors registered in Yemen as of end of 2012.[19]

Victim assistance in 2012

In 2012, YEMAC gradually resumed the implementation of its victim assistance plan following the suspension of almost all activities in 2011 as a result of increased armed violence in several regions of the country. However, the persistent insecurity continued to prevent many mine/ERW survivors from accessing services while many service providers, such as the ICRC and the Aden Rehabilitation Center, maintained reduced coverage and the suspension of outreach services that had begun in 2011.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In line with its annual victim assistance plan, in 2012 YEMAC carried out a medical survey in eight districts, reaching 295 survivors—including 96 children. YEMAC was able to reach more women and children in 2012 than in previous years.[20] The medical survey was designed to assess medical and physical rehabilitation needs of survivors.[21]

YEMAC continued to regularly update casualty information when it recorded information about new mine/ERW incidents, including information about victim assistance services received. However, as in previous years, security concerns prevented YEMAC from collecting data in areas of the country where the greatest number of mine/ERW casualties occur.[22]

Victim assistance coordination[23]

No multi-stakeholder victim assistance coordination meetings were held in 2012; the Victim Assistance Advisory Committee remained inactive. Yemen’s National Victim Assistance Strategic Plan 2010–2014 was approved by the Office of the Prime Minister and sent to the Ministry of Planning to be included in Yemen’s 2013 budget.[24]

Yemen provided an update on victim assistance at the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2013 and on details of its victim assistance program in its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2012.[25] It did not provide any update at the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2012.

Survivor Inclusion

Survivors and their representative organizations were not included in victim assistance coordination or the monitoring of the victim assistance plan in 2012.[26] There was some limited coordination between YEMAC and Yemen Association for Landmine Survivors (YALS) in the implementation of victim assistance.[27] YALS worked with the Disability Fund and with various hospitals to refer mine/ERW survivors.[28]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[29]

Emergency and ongoing medical care

Government support for medical care and rehabilitation for mine/ERW survivors resumed in 2012. Close to 350 survivors received medical attention and/or physical rehabilitation, completing 50% of YEMAC’s annual planned activities in this area.[30] International organizations, such as the ICRC and MSF made efforts to sustain increased emergency relief, but planned activities were hampered by unpredictable insecurity that continued to prevent access to certain parts of the country.[31] The ICRC had occasional access to Abyan governorate, which had previously been off limits, and was able to open an office in Taiz, in southern Yemen.[32] At the same time, a security incident in Amran governorate forced MSF to suspend activities in that region.[33]

Physical Rehabilitation

Long distances and inability to afford transportation and accommodation were the main obstacles in accessing physical rehabilitation in 2012, especially for mine/ERW survivors living in rural areas.[34] The rehabilitation center in Aden was unable to resume its outreach service, suspended in 2011, which restricted access to the center just to those mine/ERW survivors living in Aden.[35] Both YEMAC and YALS reported that physical rehabilitation became more expensive in 2012, making it more difficult for survivors to afford services directly and decreasing government capacity to fund services.[36]

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 remained suspended due to security issues.[37] A lack of female rehabilitation professionals prevented women from accessing needed services; in 2012, the ICRC sponsored formal prosthetics and orthotics training for four women to address this gap in attention.[38]

Economic Inclusion

YALS resumed economic inclusion activities in 2012, providing vocational training, supporting access to education, and initiating livelihood projects for mine/ERW survivors. Participation by women and girls increased. YALS also began supporting beneficiaries by marketing products and services offered by small businesses.[39]

Psychological Support

YALS and a few national NGOs, such as the AHRF, provided psychosocial support to mine survivors.[40] The Aden Rehabilitation Center provided psychological support to people receiving physical rehabilitation.[41]

Laws and Policies

Laws protect the rights of persons with disabilities, but they were poorly enforced and discrimination remained. No national law mandated accessibility of buildings for persons with disabilities.[42] Some schools in urban centers were made accessible through the construction of ramps in 2012.[43]

Yemen ratified the CRPD on 26 March 2009. The Social Fund for Development and the Special Needs Association held workshops to raise awareness about the CRPD and the rights of persons with disabilities, targeting government ministries and NGOs.[44]