{"id":30090,"date":"2019-01-22T05:22:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T05:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30090"},"modified":"2019-01-22T05:22:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T05:22:48","slug":"five-experts-killed-clearing-houthi-landmines-for-saudi-charity-in-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30090","title":{"rendered":"Five experts killed clearing Houthi landmines for Saudi charity in Yemen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nRIYADH: A team of explosive safety experts in Yemen have been killed by a consignment of Houthi land mines that blew up while they were being transported to be destroyed.
The five technicians \u2014 two from South Africa, one from Croatia, one from Bosnia and one from Kosovo \u2014 were part of the Saudi de-mining program\u00a0in Yemen, known as Masam Project. Its aim is to locate and destroy explosive devices illegally planted by Iranian-backed Houthi militias.
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) said on Monday that the five experts had died in the explosion in Marib governorate early on Sunday. A vehicle carrying mines and other devices exploded while en route from Masam Project\u2019s headquarters to a remote location, where they were to be destroyed.<\/p>\n

\n

\n#KSrelief<\/a> mourns the loss of five demining experts working with #Masam<\/a> project in #Marib<\/a>, who have lost their lives while attempting to bring safety and security to the Yemeni people.<\/p>\n

\u2014 KSrelief (@KSRelief_EN) January 21, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\u201cKSRelief joins with the rest of the international community in mourning the loss of these highly committed professionals, and expresses its deepest condolences to their families,\u201d the center said.
\u201cThese brave members of the Masam team lost their lives while attempting to bring safety and security to the Yemeni people, and their service to mankind will not be forgotten.
\u201cA full investigation into the tragic incident has been launched in coordination with Masam Project experts and local authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOusama Algosaibi, the managing director of\u00a0Masam Project, wrote heartfelt tributes to his collagues on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\u201c H \u201c My brother, my friend and my trusted advisor. Allah only knows how I feel with your loss. Life and work will never be the same without you. RIP my brother. @MasamProject<\/a> @JohanHdenHaan1<\/a> @ALSHAHRANI_EOD<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Dy1ybl5uMv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ousama Algosaibi (@AlgosaibiOusama) January 21, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nThe Houthis have planted more than a million land mines in Yemen, in violation of UN rules. They have caused more than 1,539 deaths, injured more than 3,000 and caused permanent disability to more than 900 Yemenis.
\u201cThese five people were doing noble work,\u201d Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri, a political analyst and international relations scholar in Riyadh, told Arab News.\u00a0
\u201cThey were trying to save the lives of Yemeni people, as opposed to the Houthis, whose only aim is to cause chaos and mayhem.\u201d
Al-Shehri said Saudi Arabia had constantly reminded the world community of the atrocities being committed by the Houthis against the Yemeni people.\u00a0
\u201cSaudi Arabia cares for the people of Yemen. It went into Yemen to save the Yemeni people from the Houthis who held them hostage,\u201d he said.
\u201cSaudi Arabia continues to provide humanitarian relief despite the Houthis creating all sorts of obstacles and trying to keep the relief away from the needy civilians of Yemen.\u201d
For Saudi Arabia, the people of Yemen came first, Al-Shehri said. \u201cSaudi Arabia went into Yemen as part of an Arab coalition to rescue the Yemeni people from the clutches of their abductors \u2014 the Houthis. It is the people of Yemen who are suffering because of the arms and ammunition and these deadly land mines that have been supplied by Iran. They have no care for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOn Monday, UN envoy Martin Griffiths arrived in the capital, Sanaa, on an unannounced visit to discuss the \u201ccomplex situation\u201d in and around the coastal city of Hodeidah,<\/p>\n

\nYemen\u2019s warring parties agreed to a cease-fire in the port last month.<\/p>\n

\nAlso under discussion from Monday will be disagreements between the Houthi militia, who hold Hodeidah, and Retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, who is heading a UN mission charged with monitoring the cease-fire.<\/p>\n

\nThe Yemeni military and the Arab Coalition, which includes Saudi Arabia, has accused the Houthis of hundreds of violations of the agreement, which have killed almost 50 civilians and wounded hundreds more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RIYADH: A team of explosive safety experts in Yemen have been killed by a consignment of Houthi land mines that blew up while they were being transported to be destroyed.The five technicians \u2014 two from South Africa, one from Croatia, one from Bosnia and one from Kosovo \u2014 were part of the Saudi de-mining program\u00a0in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}