Yemen

Casualties

Last updated: 21 October 2018

 

Mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties

All known casualties by end 2017

9,118

Mine/ERW casualties in 2017[1]

Annual total

160

Decrease from 2,104 in 2016

Survival outcome

77 killed; 82 injured; 1 unknown

Device type causing casualties

1 antipersonnel mine; 64 antivehicle mines; 1 improvised mine; 63 unspecified mines; 28 unexploded submunition; 3 unknown devices

Civilian status

89 civilians; 2 deminers; 43 military; 26 unknown

Age and gender

36 adults
10 women; 26 men

19 children
1 boy; 2 girls; 16 unknown

105 unknown

 

The ongoing conflict in the Republic of Yemen prevented the operation of a national casualty surveillance mechanism. The 160 casualties identified by the Monitor for 2017 is certainly an underreporting of the annual total.

In 2017, the Monitor identified casualties in the following governorates: Abyan, Ad Dali, Aden, Al Bayda, Al Jawf, Hadramawt, Hajjan, Hodeida, Marib, Saada, Sanaa, Shabwah, and Taiz.

Various Yemeni authorities and human rights organizations reported annual totals and cumulative totals for all time. However, their reports rarely describe the source or methodology used to compile these figures, and in some cases, do not specify the time period. The figures provided are widely different, indicating the challenge of collecting reliable data in a context of ongoing conflict.

Okaz website reports that in 2017, mines laid by the Houthi killed 147 people, including 18 children and 11 women, and injured 244, including 33 children and 20 women. The majority of accidents took place in Taiz governorate, where 77 were killed and 178 injured. However, it does not provide any source for this information.[2] A media report provides slightly different figures for casualties in Taiz in 2017, where 193 people were killed and injured. Of those killed, 20 were military and 58 were civilian, of whom three were children and six were women.[3] Mwatana’s 2017 annual report for human rights gives a much lower figure of 14 civilians killed (including three women and two children), and 46 injured (including 19 women and 14 injured) as a result of 25 accidents in 2017.[4] Another media source states that in several governorates in the period between 1 January and 31 May 2017, 39 civilians were killed, including five children and three women, while 69 were injured, including 14 children.[5]

According to one media source from 15 April 2017, people were more aware of the dangers than they were in previous years.[6]

Through to the end of 2017, the Monitor identified at least 9,118 mine/ERW casualties in Yemen.[7] The 2017 total of 160 is much less than the 2016 total of 2,037. In 2016, the vast majority of casualties were reported by the ICRC—2,037 people injured by mines/ERW were admitted into 46 ICRC-supported hospitals.[8] However, in 2017, no data was available from the ICRC. The 2016 figure is more than double the 988 reported for 2015. In 2014, the Monitor identified 24 casualties. However, there was likely significant underreporting due to the challenges facing data collection caused by the intensified armed conflict.[9]

Other sources have provided cumulative figures for mine/ERW casualties since the current conflict began. As mentioned above, these vary widely. According to a media report in May 2017, Yemen’s Minister of Human Rights was quoted by a Saudi news agency as saying that landmines may have killed up to 440 people and injured more than 540 others.[10] However, another undated website states that the ministry reported that mines had caused permanent injury to 814 citizens.[11]

A reported entitled “Antipersonnel mine victims in Yemen: during the period from September 2014 to June 2018,” by the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations, reports a total of 1,940 casualties, of which 906 were killed and 1,034 injured. However, it does not explain how this data was collected, nor does it give a breakdown by year. Accidents were reported in 19 governorates. Of the total, 1,508 were men, 116 women, and 316 children. Civilians made up 1,374 of the casualties, and 566 were military. Antipersonnel mines caused 1,196 casualties, antivehicle mines 672, and IEDs 72—no information was available as to whether these were improvised mines.[12]

The majority of casualties have occurred in Taiz governorate. A media source quoted Basam Al Ariqi from the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) reporting that in Taiz province alone, landmines had killed 268 and injured 214 between April 2015 and March 2017. He also noted that “the conflict zones in Taiz are in residential areas, so the casualties are usually civilians.”[13] Another media source quoted the director of the center for artificial limbs in Taiz, reporting that approximately 315 people were injured in the city from the beginning of the war until mid-June 2017, of which 70% were caused by landmines.[14]

Prior to 2015, the casualty total for 2012 of 263 casualties was the highest annual number recorded by the Monitor for Yemen since research began in 1999, and was due to the conflict and increased population movement in that year.[15] A Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) identified 4,904 casualties through July 2000, of which 2,560 people were killed and 2,344 were injured.[16] In 2010, it was reported in the media that there had been 35,000 mine/ERW casualties in Yemen since 1995.[17]

Cluster munition casualties

In 2017, 54 casualties of cluster munitions were reported in Yemen, 26 were casualties of cluster munition attacks and unexploded submunitions caused 28 casualties.[18]

The 54 cluster munition casualties reported in 2017 represented an increase in the 38 reported in 2016, but was lower than the 104 reported in 2015.

Prior to new use of cluster munitions in 2015, a cluster munition attack in Yemen in December 2009 was reported to have killed 55 people, including 14 women and 21 children.[19] In 2013, it was reported that unexploded submunitions remaining from the 2009 attack had killed four civilians and injured 13 in two incidents, one inDecember 2009, a few days after the attack, and the other in January 2012.[20]

 


[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)data for Yemen, January to December 2017; Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD)-Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute (SIRPI)antivehicle mine database provided by email from Ursign Hofmann, Policy Advisor, GICHD, 22 February 2018; Mwatana for Human Rights,“The Situation of Human Rights in Yemen 2017,” 15 May 2018, pp. 65–69; and Monitor media scanning for calendar year 2017.

[2]Victims of Houthi mines in 2017,” Okaz (daily newspaper), 24 April 2018 (in Arabic).

[3]Houthi mines kill 193 Yemenis in Taiz,” Al Bayan News (in Arabic), 15 April 2018.

[4] Mwatanafor Human Rights, “The Situation of Human Rights in Yemen 2017,” 15 May 2018, pp. 65–69.

[6]Houthi mines kill 193 Yemenis in Taiz,” Al Bayan News (in Arabic), 15 April 2018.

[7] ICRC, “Annual Report 2016,” Geneva, May 2017, p. 504; Monitor media scanning for calendar years 2011 through 2017; interviews with Ali Al-Kadri, YEMAC, in Geneva, 28 May 2013; and with Ahmed Alawi, YEMAC, 25 February 2014; email from Yuko Osawa, UNICEF Yemen, 7 May 2014; Monitor media scanning for calendar year 2012; Wethaq Foundation for Civil Orientation, “Landmine Victims in Kushar District, Hajja: Death Creeping Towards Innocent People,” undated but 2012; United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS), “Yemen Daily Report,” 27 March, and 2 April 2012; email from Henry Thompson, Danish Demining Group (DDG) Yemen, 15 March 2013; telephone interview with Ahmed Aalawi, YEMAC, 13 March 2013; UNICEF, “Unexploded ordnance and landmines killing more children in Yemen,” Sanaa, 20 April 2012; Monitor interview with neighbor of victim, 27 March 2012; and interview with Ahmed Alawi, YEMAC, Sanaa, 8 March 2011.

[8] ICRC, “Annual Report 2016,” Geneva, May 2017, p. 504.

[9] Ongoing conflict in both the northern and southern parts of Yemen prevented YEMAC from collecting and verifying casualty data from these areas. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “Humanitarian Bulletin Yemen,” Issue30, 11 August–3 September 2014.

[12] “Antipersonnel mine victims in Yemen: during the period from September 2014 to June 2018,” Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations–Rasd, undated.

[13]Landmines can destroy legs, but not love,” TRT World, 5 September 2017.

[14]Life turned upside down: Antipersonnel mines in Yemen,” Al Hurra (in Arabic), 29 June 2017.

[15] Wethaq Foundation for Civil Orientation, “Landmine Victims in Kushar District, Hajja: Death Creeping Towards Innocent People,” undated but 2012; “Landmine victims in southern Yemen on the rise,” Reliefweb, 13 June 2012; and “Wanting to go home but threatened by landmines, Ahim area IDPs caught in limbo,” Yemen Times, 7 February 2013.

[16] Survey Action Center, “Landmine Impact Survey Republic of Yemen Executive Summary,” July 2000, p. 15.

[17] Shatha Al-Harazi, “Yemen landmines kill 12 children this year,” UNICEF New Zealand,22 December 2010.

[18] ACLED data for Yemen, January to December 2017;“Citizen killed in Saudi cluster bomb in Taiz,” Saba Net, 22 October 2017; “US-Saudi aggression attacks several provinces,” Saba Net, 24 November 2017; and “Report: 48 Yemeni civilians killed, injured in 51 US-Saudi airstrikes in 24 hours,” Saba Net, 24 December 2017.

[19] There was a credible report of a cluster munition strike in Yemen in December 2009 that killed 55 people, including 14 women and 21 children. Amnesty International, “Wikileaks cable corroborates evidence of US airstrikes in Yemen,” 1 December 2010. In addition, although there is no specific data available on casualties, cluster munitions remnants have been recorded in northwestern Yemen, apparently following use in 2009/2010 in Saada governorate near the border with Saudi Arabia. Interviews with Abdul Raqeeb Fare, Deputy Director, YEMAC, Sanaa, 7 March 2013; and with Ali al-Kadri, YEMAC, in Geneva, 28 May 2013; and email from John Dingley, UNDP Yemen, 9 July 2013.

[20] HRW, “Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda,” 22 October 2013; and interview with Ahmed Alawi, Executive Officer, YEMAC, 25 February 2014. Previously, no confirmed cluster munition remnants casualties had been reported. Emails from Yuko Osawa, UNICEF Yemen, 7 May 2014; and from from Ali Al-Kadri, YEMAC, 5 October 2013.