The inspirational strength of the victims of Houthi landmines in Yemen

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Updated 03 April 2023
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The inspirational strength of the victims of Houthi landmines in Yemen

  • Men and women of all ages share their stores and tell how they are rebuilding their lives after terrible injuries

RIYADH: When one first meets the victims of landmines and other explosive devices in Yemen, there are often smiles on their faces. But as one spends more time with them, and listens to their harrowing stories, it is hard to avoid the feeling that they have lost all hope.

As they recall the details of the life-changing incidents that caused often devastating injuries, and describe their daily struggles to overcome the disabilities they have been left with, the smiles disappear, replaced by tears for their own plight and that of their war-torn country.

Amal, a young women from Taiz, was preparing for her wedding when a chance encounter with an unexploded shell changed everything.

“I went to the city’s entrance to take care of some things for my wedding, as one of the neighborhood’s young men, who is an expat living outside Yemen, had asked for my hand in marriage,” she said. 

“While I was out, I came across some children who had a suspicious object. It looked like something my father had been holding a while ago. He had warned us against touching these weird objects we might see in the streets.

“I was scared for the children’s safety and hurried to take it from them so it wouldn’t explode and hurt them. However, one of the playful children jumped and forcibly snatched it out of my hand, causing it to fall to the ground and explode. I no longer felt anything until I woke up at the hospital, where I realized that my arm and eye had been injured … I had to wear a prosthetic eye.”

Amal said the accident had a huge effect on her life.

“My fiance cut contact with us and my marriage never happened,” she said. “After a while, we heard that he got engaged to another girl.

“I decided to continue my university studies. However, in the beginning I faced a lot of bullying at university and on the streets. The questions I was asked were very difficult and I wanted to stop going to university, but my father supported me until I graduated from university and worked at a private school.

“This explosion affected my ability to deal with people, as I was afraid to talk to them. It destroyed my life.”

Jamila Qassem Maheeb, who is in a wheelchair, began to weep as soon as she started to share her story.

“I went out to bring back my sheep from an area close to my house,” she said. “I took the same road I always take. On my way back home, I stepped on a mine with my left leg. The mine exploded and threw me up in the air and I landed on a second mine that hit my right leg.

“I started shouting for people to help me and they took me to the hospital. I was not aware of where I was or what had happened to me until I discovered that I will not be able to walk ever again and that this wheelchair will stay with me forever.

“I used to comfortably walk around the area. Now, however, I am no longer comfortable as I am confined to this wheelchair. I used to walk and herd my sheep but now I cannot do that.

“This mine has dramatically affected me. I miss everything in this life. You feel like you are dead while alive. How can I be comfortable?”

Maheeb said the hostilities in Yemen “leave everyone, men and women, young and old, either injured or disabled. They are killing people in their houses, on their farms and at their workplaces. However, those who suffer the most are the children, women and civilians.”

After suffering his own traumatic experience, Omar Bashir Saeed, a child from Taiz governorate, now dreams helping others by becoming a doctor who specializes in landmine injuries.




Omar Bashir Saeed, a child from Taiz governorate. (Supplied)

“I was playing on the street when a missile hit us,” he said. “I did not realize what happened and I still don’t know how we reached the hospital. I then discovered that my foot was amputated and I freaked out.

“However, I got used to my new situation, one day after another. I am no longer playing as much as I used to. Sometimes, playing with my friends might worsen the case of my foot, so I leave them to play without me.”

Yet brave Omar says that feels he got off relatively lightly compared with some of his friends who were with him at the time of the incident.

“I am doing much better than them, as some of them can no longer walk … while others are paralyzed,” he said. “My condition is better than theirs.

“I dream of becoming a doctor in the future to help those who are injured and lose limbs due to mines. I hope I excel in my school studies, and at university, so I can make my dream come true.”

Hamza Mohammed Ghaleb said that when combatants plant mines, the victims are always children, women, civilians and the elderly. He speaks from personal experience.

“We were gathered at my cousin’s house and upon exiting the house I was walking in front, and I suddenly felt that I was stepping on a mine planted in the road,” he said.

“I was taken to the hospital and when I woke up from the anesthesia I was told my foot had been amputated. The mine affected my studies as I couldn’t go to school, to the supermarket or do anything else.

“After I received the prosthesis, my life returned to normal and I went back to school and to my friends.”

Despite the adversity she has faced, Hadeel Mohammed Abdul Wase, from Al-Kedha, was perhaps the boldest and most self-confident all the people we met. She told how she was left in a coma after a missile strike hit her home at about 3.00 a.m. one night.




Hadeel Mohammed Abdul Wase, from Al-Kedha. (Supplied)

“My uncle and villagers took me to the hospital located in the nearest city,” she said. “Two days after the incident, I woke up from my coma to realize that both of my hands had been amputated.

“I asked my mom: ‘How will I ever be able to write again?’ I started imagining how I would face life and I couldn’t believe that I lost both hands to the missile.

“I finally managed to adapt to my new life after facing very challenging obstacles at first, as I couldn’t eat or drink. I used to rely on my mother until I finally managed to rely on myself.”

There is still some anger about what happened to her but Abdul Wase directs her rage toward the Houthis.

“Instead of planting seeds of hope in our land, they are planting seeds of obscenity and evil,” she said. “Our land is no longer safe. We are stepping on exploding mines. We have lost all forms of safety.

“The majority of the people have lost an arm or a leg, while others met death, lost sight or other parts of their bodies. The world is no longer a safe place.

“They select the paths people take as locations to plant chains of mines instead of a single exploding device. They are ruthless and cold-hearted. All they want is to raze the nation to the ground, including military personnel and citizens.”

Abdul Wase said she fears what the long-term effects of the violence will be on her country and its people.

“Mines leave no space for the future; with all these explosions, deaths, and wounds, is there really any future left in Yemen?” she asked.

“The seeds of failure are planted in our land. Plant hope and future seeds instead of these demolishing mines. There is no future in Yemen until mines are completely removed from our land.”

Mohamed Saleh Maraani, who lives in Moussa district, says: “The terrorist Houthi militia had reached us … and planted mines on roads and in houses, farms, schools, water wells and hospitals. We could not return to our homes, to our mosques, and to our schools. Our ways of life were destroyed.

“When the Masam (mine-clearance) teams arrived, they opened the roads and secured the schools so that the educational process can resume. They secured the houses and surveyed them; thus, we were able to return to our areas safely.”


More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe, UN refugee agency says

Updated 6 sec ago
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More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe, UN refugee agency says

  • Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year
GENEVA: Over a thousand Sudanese refugees have reached or attempted to reach Europe in early 2025, the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Friday, citing growing desperation in part due to reduced aid in the region.
Some 12 million people have been displaced by the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has fueled what UN officials call the world’s most devastating aid crisis.
While some have recently returned home to Khartoum, millions of others in neighboring countries like Egypt and Chad face tough choices as services for refugees are being cut, including by the United States as part of an aid review.
Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year.
Around 937 others were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya — more than double last year’s figures for the same period, she added.
“As humanitarian aid crumbles and if the war does not abate, many more will have little choice than to join them,” she said.
Migrant deaths hit a record last year, the UN migration agency said, with many perishing on the Mediterranean crossing which is one of the world’s most dangerous.

UN: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children’

Updated 56 min 58 sec ago
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UN: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children’

  • UN rights office spokesperson warns the military strikes across Gaza were ‘leaving nowhere safe’
  • Israel has said its troops are seizing ‘large areas’ in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants

GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday said it analysis of 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza showed only women and children were killed and decried the human cost of the war.

The UN rights office also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani warned the military strikes across Gaza were “leaving nowhere safe.”

“Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people,” she told reporters in Geneva.

“In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children,” she said.

“Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by our Office,” she added.

Shamdasani cited an April 6 strike on a residential building of the Abu Issa family in Deir al Balah, which reportedly killed one girl, four women, and one four-year-old boy.

She highlighted that even the areas where Palestinians were being instructed to go in the expanding number of Israeli “evacuation orders” were also being subjected to attacks.

“Despite Israeli military orders instructing civilians to relocate to the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis, strikes continued on tents in that area housing displaced people, with at least 23 such incidents recorded by the Office since 18 March,” she said.

Shamdasani referred to a March 31 order by the Israeli military covering all of Rafah, the southernmost governorate in Gaza, followed by a large-scale ground operation.

Israel has said its troops are seizing “large areas” in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

“Large areas are being seized and added to Israel’s security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated,” Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday.

“Let us be clear, these so-called evacuation orders are actually displacement orders, leading to displacement of the population of Gaza into ever shrinking spaces,” Shamdasani said.

“The permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territories amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it is a crime against humanity.”


WHO: Medicine critically low due to Gaza aid block

Updated 11 April 2025
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WHO: Medicine critically low due to Gaza aid block

  • Lack of medicine making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational

GENEVA: Medicine stocks are critically low due to the aid block in Gaza, making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
“We are critically low in our three warehouses, on antibiotics, IV fluids and blood bags,” WHO official Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.


Yemen ‘not a battleground for settling scores,’ says top government official

Updated 11 April 2025
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Yemen ‘not a battleground for settling scores,’ says top government official

  • Brig. Gen. Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh calls for stronger support for Yemeni forces on the ground to restore balance

DUBAI: Yemen is “not a battleground for settling scores, nor part of any external compromises,” a top government official told Asharq Al-Awsat in an exclusive interview.

Brig. Gen. Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council with vice-presidential rank, further emphasized that diminishing the country to a pawn between powerful nations engaged in political play undermines its sovereignty and regional security.

“The world would be making a mistake by accepting Yemen as a bargaining chip in Iranian negotiations,” said Saleh, who also heads the Political Bureau of the National Resistance. He also emphasized Yemen’s strategic importance to global shipping routes.

Saleh has remained largely out of public view since the US intensified its air campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthis to stop the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

He further warned that keeping Yemen “a base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard” threatens not only Yemenis but also regional and international interests.

But achieving stability in the conflict-ridden country hinges on supporting a national state rooted in constitutional rule and genuine popular consensus, not on short-term geopolitical deals, Saleh added.

He called for stronger support for Yemeni forces on the ground to restore balance, not as a tool for escalation, but because it is a national imperative to protect civilians and preserve hard-won gains.

He said the Yemeni government was in ongoing coordination with international partners and the Saudi-led coalition backing legitimacy in Yemen to secure further assistance for the national struggle.

Cooperation with regional and international partners to bolster the country’s coast guard, particularly in the Red Sea, a strategic artery for global trade, also continues, the Yemeni official said.

Maritime security cannot be separated from national sovereignty, and defending sea lanes was integral to restoring state authority on land and at sea, Saleh said.

On achieving peace in Yemen, Saleh said: “There is no meaning to any settlement that does not subject the Houthis to the Yemeni constitution and the rule of law.” He discounted any notion that the militia group could be accommodated outside a constitutional framework.

“Peace cannot be granted to a group that rejects the state,” he said. “It is forged when the state regains the capacity to enforce the law and protect its citizens.”

For Saleh, forging a peace agreement with the Houthis — whom he describes as a bloodthirsty group with no commitment to national frameworks and an ideology rooted in an enemy state — was virtually nonexistent.

He accused the Houthis of placing their leadership and institutions tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps above Yemen’s state institutions.

“Governance is about managing people’s affairs based on shared frameworks,” Saleh said. “The Houthis do not abide by any of that.”

Saleh has put direct blame on Iran for perpetuating the conflict through its armed proxies, keeping Yemen hostage to violence and rebellion, although Tehran has continually denied its involvement.

Saleh also acknowledged the challenges facing the Presidential Leadership Council, and described the internal disagreements as “natural,” given the complexity of the crisis in Yemen.

“In the end,” he said, “what unites us is greater than any differences.

“Disagreements are natural in any leadership body, particularly in exceptional conditions like Yemen’s,” he said. “But more important is our ability to navigate this diversity and divergence while remaining committed to the national interest.”

 


From Dubai to Osaka to Riyadh: Expos mark decade of global dialogue, says UAE official

Updated 11 April 2025
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From Dubai to Osaka to Riyadh: Expos mark decade of global dialogue, says UAE official

  • UAE, Japan, and Saudi Arabia expos each bring distinct strengths and perspectives, says UAE official
  • Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai will run from April 13 to Oct. 13

DUBAI: The move of expos from Dubai to Osaka and soon to Riyadh presents a “unique opportunity to shape a decade of global engagement” in the Middle East and Asia, according to Shihab Al-Faheem, the UAE pavilion commissioner general.

The sequence of the three locations “offers continuity for themes such as innovation, sustainability, and cultural dialogue,” Al-Faheem said in an interview with Arab News Japan.

“It also strengthens connections between our countries. The UAE, Japan, and Saudi Arabia each bring distinct strengths and perspectives,” he added. “By working together through these global platforms, we can create long-term partnerships that deliver meaningful outcomes for people and the planet.”

Al-Faheem, who is also the UAE’s ambassador to Japan, said the Osaka-Kansai Expo this year carries special meaning for the Gulf country.

The UAE’s first expo journey began in Osaka more than five decades ago, and the commissioner-general explained that returning to Japan was “an opportunity to continue engaging with the world and to contribute to shaping a future grounded in cooperation and collective progress.”

As the baton was passed from Dubai Expo 2020 to Osaka, Al-Faheem said the most important insight the UAE valued was that of creating experiences that are immersive, inclusive and people focused.

“We also learned that strong logistical planning and a flexible, responsive approach are essential to hosting a successful expo,” he told Arab News Japan. “We believe these lessons will resonate with Japan as it welcomes the world in 2025.”

When it comes to the UAE’s participation in Osaka this year, the country’s pavilion will continue its “immersive and multi-sensory journey” giving visitors a chance to “engage on an emotional and intellectual level.”

The UAE Pavilion’s theme is “Earth to Ether,” which expresses the Gulf country’s journey from a heritage rooted in the land to a future defined by innovation.

With sustainability and technology in mind, Al-Faheem said the pavilion uses eco-conscious materials such as Datecrete and palm-based architectural elements to reflect environmental values.

“The content of the pavilion also showcases our leadership in clean energy, smart healthcare, and space technologies,” the ambassador said.

The architectural design draws inspiration from traditional Emirati structures and uses materials from the date palm. Inside the pavilion, visitors will be able to experience stories that reflect the UAE’s values and vision for the future.

Given that the UAE and Japan have both hosted World Expos, Al-Faheem said that this has allowed the two countries to strengthen “an already deep and multifaceted relationship. These global events provide a powerful platform to showcase shared values and to develop partnerships across sectors such as energy, education, culture, and technology.”

The UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 is expected to honor the relationship between the two countries and create new opportunities for joint initiatives.

Al-Faheem said he hopes that through the upcoming expo, the UAE will be able to deepen people-to-people ties with Japan and to create cultural and educational exchanges.

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai will run from April 13 to Oct. 13, with an official opening ceremony on April 12.

This article also appears on Arab News Japan