The United Nations said that mines and other unexploded ordnance have caused 159 deaths or injuries over the past six months in the city of Hodeidah in Yemen, which is controlled by the Houthis.
The director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, Eileen Cohen, said that more than 50 percent of the victims in the port city of Hodeidah are women and children.

And called for the acceleration of the demining process throughout Yemen.

The United Nations did not disclose the number of accidents that resulted in deaths among the 159 victims.

The number refers to the human toll from landmines and "explosive remnants of war," a term that includes shells, grenades and other lethal devices left over from conflict.

It should be noted that landmines have been laid throughout Yemen since the 1960s, and an increase in their use has been recorded since the start of the country's civil war in 2014, and the Houthis have used landmines on a large scale.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, based in the United States, Houthi landmines killed at least 122 people between 2016 and 2018.

"Due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate estimates, it is likely that these statistics constitute a small part of all mine explosions involving civilians in Yemen," the research center said in a report issued in 2018.

Al Hudaydah, a strategic city controlled by the Houthis, is one of the most heavily mined cities in Yemen.

On Tuesday, a UN convoy carrying the Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, Eileen Cohen, was hit by a landmine explosion in the northern suburbs of Hodeidah. No one was injured in the incident.
Source: agencies