The American Center for Justice (ACJ) released an extensive field and legal report titled “Mines… Blind Killer,” documenting the catastrophic civilian casualties and property destruction resulting from landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted across 17 Yemeni governorates between June 2014 and February 2022. Based on a comprehensive year-long field investigation involving site inspections, verified medical and forensic records, and interviews with victims, eyewitnesses, healthcare officials, and demining experts from Project Masam, the report provides documented evidence of systematic violations committed exclusively by the Houthi group.
The report verifies the killing of 2,526 civilians (including 429 children and 217 women) and the injury of 3,286 others (including 723 children and 220 women). Approximately 75% of the wounded suffered permanent disabilities or limb amputations due to anti-personnel mines, anti-vehicle mines, naval mines, and disguised IEDs. Taiz Governorate sustained the highest casualty rate at 22%—predominantly across its western coastal districts—followed by Al-Hodeidah at 13%, Marib at 8.51%, and Al-Jawf at 8.39%, with the remainder distributed across Aden, Al-Bayda, Al-Dhalea, Lahj, Shabwa, Hajjah, Sana’a, Abyan, and Saada. Furthermore, demining operations faced severe hazards, resulting in the deaths of 33 Project Masam personnel (including five international experts) and injuries to 40 others.
The investigation substantiates the destruction of civilian transportation and rural livelihoods. Anti-vehicle mines completely destroyed 425 vehicles and partially damaged 163 others, while 334 agricultural farms were rendered unusable and 2,185 head of livestock were killed. The report documents advanced camouflage techniques used by Houthi forces, including encasing explosives in resin matching local rocks and soil, disguising devices as toys or household containers, integrating sensitive magnetic sensors, and deploying naval mines along Red Sea transit routes and fishing grounds off Midi and Al-Hodeidah. Compound violations include the forced displacement of rural communities, denial of safe return to liberated areas, contamination of water sources and grazing paths, denial of humanitarian access, and obstruction of students’ access to schooling.
ACJ classifies these acts as grave breaches of the 1997 Ottawa Convention (ratified by Yemen in 1998), Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, and Customary International Humanitarian Law prohibiting indiscriminate warfare, constituting war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Center calls on the Houthi group to immediately cease the manufacture and planting of landmines, surrender comprehensive minefield maps, and destroy its stockpiles. ACJ further urges the international community to sanction responsible military commanders and expand technical and medical assistance for mine clearance and survivor rehabilitation.
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