Beirut/Cairo, June 22, (dpa/GNA) – Four children died and nine more were injured, when a landmine detonated in southern Yemen, local authorities reported on Monday.
The landmine is believed to have been placed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The explosion in a village in the Dhale district, was described as the “worst humanitarian catastrophe in the governorate’s history.”
The Dhale governor called on international and humanitarian organizations and mine clearance services, to increase efforts to remove unexploded ordnance, saying that it constituted a major threat to the civilian population.
The Yemeni government estimates that the Houthi rebels have laid about 2 million landmines since the conflict began in 2014. At the time, the rebels seized large parts of the north of the country, including the capital Sanaa, with the internationally recognized government pushed into the south of the country.
GNA