Landmine blast kills 2 in Yemen's Red Sea port city-Xinhua

Landmine blast kills 2 in Yemen's Red Sea port city

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2023-08-24 04:50:45

SANAA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed on Wednesday in a landmine explosion in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights said in a statement.

The landmine exploded when the two civilians walked over it on the side of a road in the al-Hayet area in the southern district of al-Durayhimi, killing them on the spot.

Hodeidah has witnessed a shaky cease-fire between the Yemeni government forces and the Houthi militia since they reached a UN-sponsored truce in Stockholm in December 2018.

The port city is controlled by the Houthis, while the government forces have advanced to the southern districts.

In another accident elsewhere in the country on Wednesday, a soldier of the government troops was seriously wounded in a mine blast during the process of removing it from a field in the district of Raghwan in the northeastern province of Marib, according to local medics.

Raghwan is a frontline between the government troops and Houthi rebels, but fighting has been largely eased for more than a year. The troops control much of the oil-rich province.

In April, the internationally-recognized Yemeni government made an urgent appeal for international assistance to clear landmines and other explosive remnants of war.

Yemeni demining experts said more than 1 million landmines have been laid since the outbreak of the civil war in late 2014 when the Houthi militia took control of several northern provinces and forced the Yemeni government out of the capital Sanaa.