In Yemen and beyond, these inhumane weapons serve virtually no military purpose and kill indiscriminately.
Land mines are profoundly inhumane. These weapons serve virtually no military purpose. They primarily injure the innocent, especially the young. They kill indiscriminately, long after violent conflicts end. They impede economic development and leave scars for generations to come. They are, in short, a tool of terror.
These weapons do not discriminate between soldiers or children. They threaten everyone. Nearly 80 percent of land mine deaths and injuries are civilians. The cost of surviving a land mine is high too. Casualties sustained from land mines often cause severe economic difficulties for victims and their families. A mine itself may cost $3 to $30, while medical care and rehabilitation for those injured in developing nations cost well over $3,000.
Since the onset of conflict, Yemen's National Center for Removal of Land Mines has cleared away more than 300,000 land mines planted by these militias, and yet hundreds of thousands must still be cleared. This massive number represents just a fraction of the nearly tens of millions of land mines buried in over 80 countries. The United Nations states around 2,000 people per month are killed or injured by buried mines, but exorbitant costs extend beyond lives to national economies.
For years after the conflict in Yemen has ended, land mines will continue to maim and kill. It is a tragic reality of the conflict. Land mines have already caused more than 9,000 deaths and injuries in Yemen. Every single additional person killed or wounded by a land mine is an unnecessary casualty. Unnecessary because by now everyone understands land mines are wrong. As Princess Diana showed, however, we are not powerless.
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