People trapped by explosive ordnance in Yemen

Coastline scarred by years of bombing

After years of intense fighting and bombing, the ground in the Taiz and Hodeidah areas of Yemen's west coast is littered with almost every kind of munition: artillery projectiles, mortars, rockets, air bombs, landmines, and improvised explosive devices.

HI recently intervened in farmland stretching out around Suhaili village in the Zuhari sub-district of Mokha, which is part of the Taiz governorate. The area – referred to by locals as the 'Rima Farms' - is a patchwork of smallholdings, one of which belongs to Kulaiba Suhail.

Around 20 families live here, totalling roughly 225 people. Unlike many communities on the west coast, they have not been displaced. Although there are military positions in the surrounding area, none are located directly on this land, and the residents have continued their everyday farming activities throughout the conflict.

The rocket at the Rima farms

The case was brought to the attention of HI's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team almost by chance. Another NGO was conducting survey activities in the area when its members came across a piece of explosive ordnance. They reported it to Yemen's national mine action authority, which passed the case on to HI's EOD team the same day.

As it was a single item in a clearly defined location, the task was completed within a day. The HI team traveled to the site, assessed the hazard, and safely moved the explosive ordnance away. Residents were surprised — and visibly relieved — that a response came so quickly after they had raised the alarm. However, that is not the end of the story.

Storing the ordnance to sell scrap metal

They had found a single 57 mm rocket, but it had been tampered with. Someone had detached its fuze and buried it separately, some distance away.

The villagers pointed the team towards the man who had removed the fuze, suspecting that he knew about other hidden ordnance in the area. He was reluctant to come forward, and with good reason: during and after the war, he had collected large quantities of explosive ordnance in the hope of selling it – a common activity – but most of it was forfeited by the military at the time.

The team clearly explained that they were humanitarian workers and described their work in more detail. He revealed that he still had further items hidden, buried randomly across several locations.

The team located and safely recovered a substantial amount: two mines, one fuze from a 57 mm rocket, six fuzes from 85 mm projectiles, one improvised sea mine, another 57 mm rocket, fifteen empty 82 mm projectile cartridges and a booster charge for an RPG rocket.

All of the items were collected and transferred to a remote demolition site.

The contamination according to the landscape

Armed Violence Reduction Specialist Jamila Waleed explains that the contamination can vary from one region to another depending on the landscape.

“In the flatlands, shifting frontlines were heavily seeded with mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices, paralyzing local agriculture. In the mountains, anti-personnel mines and tripwire hazards were laid around former firing positions. This contamination prevents people, especially displaced people, from safely returning home and resuming their livelihoods. It blocks access to water, farmland and humanitarian aid; restricts the movement of residents and returnees; threatens coastal navigation; and endangers the fishermen and farmers trying to rebuild their lives. Flooding has compounded the problem, shifting buried ordnance and altering areas that had previously been marked and mapped as contaminated — some of which had even been cleared already.”

HI teams on the ground

Since August 2025, HI's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team, based in Mokha, is made up of around a dozen specialists.

• Over 89 acres of land reported as hazard areas.
• 12,500 people reached through risk education sessions.
• 119 pieces of explosive ordnance secured.
• Near 60 spots have been cleared