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.

Yemen enacted legislation to enforce implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty on 20 April 2005.[1] It last referred to Presidential Law No. 25 in its 2007 transparency reports for the Mine Ban Treaty and continued to omit any reference in its 2019 report.[2]

Yemen last submitted an annual Article 7 transparency report for the treaty in 2019.[3] It previously submitted reports in 2017 and prior to 2014. Yemen has participated in all of the Mine Ban Treaty’s Review Conferences, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo, Mozambique in June 2014. It has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the treaty, including the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the treaty’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in June 2019.

Yemen voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 73/61 on 5 December 2018, which promoted implementation of the convention.[4]

In November 2016, Yemen told States Parties that the ongoing conflict that began in March 2015, when a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of nations began a military intervention against Houthi forces in Yemen, has prevented the operation of its humanitarian mine clearance program.[5] Yemen said that some emergency mine clearance tasks have been undertaken.

Yemen is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is also not a 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.

Yemen destroyed a total of approximately 108,000 antipersonnel mines from its stocks. It reported destruction of 74,000–78,000 stockpiled antipersonnel mines in April 2002.[6] An additional 30,000 mines found in November 2006 were destroyed in December 2007.[7] In April 2017, Yemen reported that “there are no stockpiled anti-personnel mines found after the last 30,000 mines found and destroyed in 2006.”[8]

In 2017, Yemen again reported the retention of 3,760 antipersonnel mines of four types for training and research purposes, the same quantity and types declared retained since 2008.[9] Yemen submitted a transparency report for calendar year 2018 but did not provide an update on the number of mines retained. Yemen has never reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as was agreed by States Parties in 2004.[10]

At least five types of antipersonnel mines produced in the 1980s have been used in Yemen since 2013. None of these mines was among the four types of antipersonnel mines that Yemen has reported stockpiling in the past, including for training mine clearance personnel.

Types of antipersonnel mines previously stockpiled by Yemen and types used after 2013

The evidence of further use of antipersonnel mines in 2016 suggests either that the 2002 declaration to the UN Secretary-General on the completion of landmine stockpile destruction was incorrect, or that these mines were acquired from another source after 2002. In a September 2016 letter, Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sanaa, controlled by the Houthis and the General People’s Congress, 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.[11] In April 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that the Sanaa-based Ministry of Defense stockpiles antipersonnel mines.[12]

Production of landmines by Houthi forces

In September 2018, the arms consultancy Conflict Armament Research (CAR) reported that Houthi forces are “mass producing” landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs),[13] and associated triggering devices for victim activation. This production includes the standardization and production of explosive charges, pressure plates, and passive infrared sensors. Based on a series of CAR field missions conducted in 2017–2018, the report also confirmed the use of PMN, PPM-2, and GLD-150A[14] antipersonnel mines, TM-57, PRB-M3, VS-1.6 antivehicle mines, and a variety of types of improvised mines, including directional fragmentation charges. According to CAR, several types of improvised mines appear to be mass-produced by the Houthi in Yemen and were used in Aden, Mokah, and other locations on the west coast of the country.[15]

Use

Antipersonnel landmines, antivehicle mines, victim-activated improvised mines, and other types of IEDs are being used by Houthi and their associated forces in Yemen in 2019, primarily in battles occurring on the west coast of the country near the port of Hodeida. According to an unconfirmed statistic reported by the Yemen Mine Action Center, the Yemeni army removed over 300,000 Houthi-laid landmines between 2016 and 2018.[16]

A Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen convened by the UN 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.” According to the report, the group “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.”[17]

In April 2019, Human Rights Watch reported that landmines emplaced by the Houthi killed at least 140 civilians since 2018. However, Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm when the mines were placed.[18] In November 2018, employees at the Hodeidah port accused Houthi forces of placing landmines in the area around the port’s entrances.[19]

Previously, journalists accompanying United Arab Emirate (UAE)-funded mine clearance teams in 2018 documented hundreds of Houthi mines and explosive devices prior to destroying the weapons.[20]

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

On 2 April 2017, Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is controlled by the Houthis and Saleh’s General People’s Congress Party, denied that Houthi-Saleh forces had used antipersonnel landmines, affirming the Sanaa-based authorities are “vigilant in abiding by [their] commitments” under the Mine Ban Treaty.[21]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “armed factions and terrorist groups” have produced and used improvised landmines in Yemen. It said that after the current conflict ends, the Sanaa-based authorities are prepared to create a committee to investigate the use of landmines in Taizz and 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.”[22]

In early 2017, a UN Panel of Experts on Yemen reported that Houthi-Saleh forces have used victim-activated IEDs that deployed antivehicle mines as the main charge in Taizz.[23] Antivehicle landmines claimed casualties in Bayda governorate in October 2017 and Jawf governorate in April 2017, but it is unclear when those mines were laid.[24]

Previous use

The first confirmed use of antipersonnel mines by a Mine Ban Treaty State Party occurred in Yemen in 2011–2012 at Bani Jarmooz, a location north of Sanaa, during the uprising that led to the ousting of then-President Saleh.[25] According to witness testimony and other evidence, GYATA-64, PMN-1, and PMD-6 antipersonnel mines were laid around the camps of the government’s Republican Guard at Bani Jarmooz in late 2011.[26]

In November 2013, the office of Yemen’s prime minister admitted that a “violation” of the Mine Ban Treaty occurred in 2011.[27] Yemen provided States Parties with an interim report on 29 March 2014 detailing plans to clear the mines laid at Bani Jarmooz.[28] In June 2014, it informed States Parties that the Military Prosecutor’s Office had begun an investigation to identify those responsible for the mine use at Bani Jarmooz.[29] 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.”[30] 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.”